Mensah And Her Wives.

[Image Description: Drawing of a sitting cat with curly, grey fur. Above the cat is a drawing of their face from the front. Below the cat is the word “Graystripe”. End of Description.]

Took me a while to fully figure out Graystripe’s design. Originally, I was going to give the rex coat to Firestar’s family, but then in terms of personality, I feel curly fur better fits the comedian of the OG apprentices.

Suburban Wyvern Wrangling

An intro I wrote over a year ago for a story I’ll likely never get around to continuing, at least not for a long while. I’m still pretty proud of this though so, thought I might as well post it. (And yes, I know the title sucks.)

Chasing after a dragon in the edge of town was the last thing Latisha wanted to be doing at 9pm.

She could be resting at home, watching some adorable parrot videos on her phone, but no, she just had to get a call from her boss telling her how there had been sightings of a cat-sized, lizard bat soaring over Minchester Park. She could be driving to her job’s local office to drop off the creature, but no, it just had to be a skittish wild dragon, rather than a more approachable domesticated one. She could be tackling the reptile to the ground right now, but no, it just had to be a British wyvern, one of the swiftest species out there. How in the world did a British wyvern even get to central Indiana? At least it was a dwarf species. But then again, if it were any larger, then a fully-equipped cryptid-catching team would have been called in to capture the beast instead of a single woman in an old hoodie.

Well, fuck then.

But Tish didn’t have time to dwell on that any further. She had to focus on catching up to the beast while maneuvering between lamp posts and flowering trees. She swerved around a picnic table, not taking her eyes off the dragon for even a second. This creature was fast, remaining a few strides ahead of her, and it didn’t show any signs that it would be landing soon. Tish silently pleaded that it would at least descend a bit just to give her neck a break from craning upwards.

The powers that be must have heard her pleas and decided to troll her, because the dragon ended up soaring past the entry arch of the park and straight into someone’s neighboring yard. It wasn’t just any yard though. It was one of those thousand square foot yards with a mansion-esque house in the middle of it.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!” Tish groaned as she skidded to a halt. There was no way she could trespass on such lavish private property and get away with it. Even though it may have been nighttime in a part of town where most residents would be in bed by now, she still imagined the homeowners wouldn’t take kindly to finding a black woman in dusty attire sneaking through their property in search of an animal that, as far as they knew, was as fictional as magic wands.

Maybe the residents were hidumans and not visumans, and she could explain the situation to them. Oh, who was she kidding, the nearest hidumans who could afford to live in an apartment-complex-sized house most likely lived in Chicago, not in the suburbs of central Indiana. Tish knew that if the dragon remained over there much longer, there was going to be some sort of a ruckus tonight, no matter what action she chose to take.

Tish darted back and forth along the edge of the park, mirroring the dragon as it zigzagged over the lawn. Pushing back a few stray curls from her face, she took a quick glance at the digital watch on her wrist. It was 9:06. If she didn’t capture this dragon soon, she may end up having to just leave it behind. British wyverns were passive enough that she didn’t mind leaving it be, where it would at worst only spook a few people. What Tish didn’t want was a stern reprimand from her boss and $300 less in her paycheck for all her trouble. Considering how low the dragon was flying now, she may end up having to do so.

Much to her luck, surprise, and relief, the dragon ended up swooping out of the property, gliding towards the adjacent sidewalk. Tish immediately sprinted onto the walkway. The wyvern began slowing down as it continued to descend, allowing Tish to close the distance between her and the beast. A few moments later, it finally landed in a field of tall grasses bordering the sidewalk.

As soon as the creature had set foot on land, Tish crouched low to the ground. Her steps were now soft and slow as she snuck up on the dragon. The wyvern folded up its wings and sat down to rest, unaware that its pursuer was still nearby. Latisha crept ever closer to it, pausing for a moment after each step. She could not afford for it to go flying off again, not when it was only a few feet in front of her now.

When she had reached the edge of the sidewalk, Tish leaped onto the creature, pinning it down by the back with her hands. The dragon frantically flapped its wings and flailed its tail, letting out a shrill, falcon-like cry. Tish kept her head raised. Though dragons may not have been able to actually breathe fire, their strong tail whips sure felt as fiery as any blaze.

She turned her left arm onto the entirety of the dragon’s back, freeing up her right hand. Fumbling through the top pocket of her cargo shorts, she retrieved a small plastic packet. Tish secured one side of the packet firmly between her teeth, keeping her grip on it with her hand. With both her head and her hand, she yanked both sides of the plastic, tearing it in two. She quickly pulled out the sticky, white pad inside, letting the plastic casing fall to the ground.

As quickly and gently as she could with it struggling, Tish turned the dragon on its side, exposing its underbelly. She placed the pad on this softer region of its body and pressed down to ensure it remained secure. After a few seconds, the dragon’s movements steadily slowed and its cry became softer. Its entire body gradually became more limp, until it fell asleep. The only sounds and movements it made were those of its breathing.

The woman took a sigh of relief. Retying the headwrap holding up her hair, she took the moment to enjoy having finally caught the elusive creature.

She then turned around the baby sling she had wrapped around her body so that the carrying part of it rested just below her breasts. Supporting the dragon by its head and back, she lifted it up and snuggly cradled it into the sling. Ideally, Tish would have brought the containment box with her, but after the first few times she’d done so, she quickly learned that trying to wrangle in cryptids with a giant box in her hands only made the chase and capture more difficult.

Tish checked over the dragon to make sure that it was tightly tucked in and that its nose wasn’t obscured before getting back on her feet. She checked her watch once again: 9:15.

Looks like I’m going to have to run back to the car as well. Wait?

Where did I park again?

Last night I had a dream about this cat who was a college professor of media studies. In the dream, he was freaking out because he’d misplaced his bus ticket, which he needed to get home to his two kids (he’s a single dad by the way), and was asking everyone he could for $20 to buy a new one.

Got no name for him yet, but my friends and I are workshopping one. Right now, I’m leaning towards Henry Calico.

Also, I’ve decided he’s now Alex and Zahra’s teacher. Yes, he is a teacher at a mostly human school.

[Image Description: Four sketches of a humanoid creature standing and dressed in various outfits. This creature has tan fur, a rabbit-like head, a long tufted tail, and hooves.] [Starting from the left, in the first outfit she is wearing a pink jean jacket with art pins on it, a dark blue striped shirt underneath, and pink shorts.] [The second outfit is the same dark blue shirt and pink shorts, but without e jacket.] [The third outfit is a white cropped tank top, short black leggings, a red feather boa wrapped around the creature’s arms, and a golden choker on her neck.] [The fourth outfit is a purple and black striped button-up, a gray graphic t-shirt underneath, and black bejeweled jeans.]

Some sketches I did of an older character. Gave her some hooves, because I hate drawing feet and shoes and don’t really care about footwear fashion. Her name is Matonne, and I’m thinking about using her as my fursona, since I tend to mindlessly doodle creatures that look like this a lot.

Another drawing I dug out of my Discord to finally publicly post, this time of what I imagine Murderbot’s internal anatomy to be.

A breakdown:

Brain: Includes human neurons, a combination organic and inorganic hypothalamus, and computer brainstuff (including the threat assessment and governor modules)

Sensory Organs: Very sensitive and adjustable eyes, ears, and nose. Technically also includes the plating on the back of its head to allow it to wirelessly link up with other digital systems and the nerves all along its body

Respiratory System: Lungs are small and unidirectional, more akin to a bird’s or reptile’s than a mammal’s for greater efficiency. (Thank you to Your Dinosaurs are Wrong for teaching me that.)

Heart: Also small. Transports everything to the right place including oxygen, energy-source molecules, hormones, immune system nanobots, and so on

Power Cells: The main power cells are situated in the chest. There are power cells surrounding the brain stem and spinal cord to better fuel mental processes as well as cells in the abdomen just in case the main ones become damaged or depleted. It also specifically has power cells just for its arm guns

Waste Management: It may not eat, but its cells would still produce waste. This inorganic organ is for holding and processing said waste (as well as pathogens and other unuseful materials). It decomposes these materials into something that can be breathed out, used as fuel, turned into new cells, or (rarely) just sit there until these organs are drained or replaced during surgery

Cell Production: To reduce the risk of genetic mutation (and to make up for the lack of bone marrow), all new cells and nanobots are produced here from stem cells then distributed to the correct parts of the body. This is mostly just red blood cells, but also includes a few other cells. Note that my current headcanon is that constructs can heal on their own, but far slower than humans and are near completely reliant on external medical care to repair damaged body parts

Hormone Producer: It mostly makes adrenaline, but it can make other stuff too like oxytocin

Support Structure: Very tough and not as heavy as you’d think futuristic metal. Arteries and veins flow through it

Muscles: Mostly inorganic

Guns: It has energy projectiles in its arms. I do not understand weapons, so that is all you’re getting

Subcells: Because its limbs are detachable, its larger joints have power cell + waste management systems in them to keep the organic parts of said limbs operational for a short period of time. Also helpful as an extra source of power and waste management when the limbs are attached

Immune System (not shown): All constructs have a nanobot-based immune system that does a pretty good job of protecting them from pathogens that would harm their organic parts. This artificial immune system is pretty aggressive since constructs can’t reproduce and don’t have to keep other microorganisms within them to survive

[[Image Description: A headshot drawing of two characters. The character on the left is a lion with a thick mane and mustache. The character on the right is a donkey with large floppy ears. End of Description.]] Did a quick bit of concept art for Matonne’s potential parents. I’m pretty proud of how her lion dad turned out, but I’m still on the fence about her mother. I’m torn between making her a full donkey or a donkey-rabbit, and I might shorten her muzzle.

Another ArtFight attack, this time friendly fire upon HazelSkye. I love me some galaxy print (or at least a gradient with sparkles) so as soon I saw this little cat-bat, I had to draw her. Brings me back to my days as a teen designing galaxy patterned kitties.

[Image Description: A digital portrait of a light brown lion cub. This lion cub is a young Zira from The Lion King 2. End of Description]

A quick little drawing I did yesterday of cub Zira. I’ve decided to dive back into the fandom after dipping out shortly before The Lion Guard aired. The landscape of the fandom (and fandoms in general) has changed quite a bit since the mid 2010s, and I like what I see.

Also decided to play around with going with my own style over sticking to the Disney’s. The above eye shape I’ve switched to spots and made the ears vertical to better match real lions. I’m still tweaking how I want the ears, but otherwise, I’m happy with this one.

[Image Description: Digital artwork of a Clefairy; a pastel pink, round, bipedal Pokémon with large cat-like ears, tiny fairy wings, a curl of hair atop its head akin to bangs, and a curly tail resembling a cinnamon roll. The background is dark blue with lighter blue stars on it, resembling a night sky. The line-art, shadows, highlights, and background all have a pixelated airbrush appearance to them. End Of Image Description]

It’s been a looooong while since I’ve posted any art. So to get myself at least a little bit back into the swing of things, I’ve decided to do a little drawing of one of my Pokémon faves, Clefairy.  I played around with the Dissolve Filter and pencil tool in Photoshop, and I have to saw I am in love with them.

My friend @tytoalbias recently created a new DnD character, Elleguire Dubois. Upon learning Elleguire’s backstory, I took a liking to his very queer, very GNC, and very lycanthropic family and decided to draw my take on the Dubois parents.