I'm Cales, and I'm a Kunin

[cales]

So I was sitting here thinking we should get to know one another, since we're all going to be working together. And that while the Introductions thread is good for a start, we need somewhere to really cut loose and talk about ourselves.

And I figured, eh, I've got nothing to hide, so I'll start.

My name is Cales. I'd prefer if it were Mr. Cales, but the forum won't support that name.

I'm from Kentucky, and I'm as far from the illiterate dumb redneck stereotype as a human being can be and still live on this planet. Probably because I'm from Kentucky.

My main interests in writing is in subversion. I like to tweak things. I like it when plots don't go quite as planned; when the hero turns out to be a villain and the hero's love interest runs off with his best friend because, hey, just because he's the main character, it doesn't mean he gets to have a stranglehold on her heart.

I'm deeply connected to the tabletop RPG scene, and am in fact working on creating two RPGs right now. I am working on a Mortasheen RPG for the Bogleech.com website, and I am working on a private project as well. I'm also somewhat tied to video gaming, though that's dropped off as I don't have the time for it these days.

I'm a law student who's doing very well in law school and I hope to make so much money someday that my bank account consists of nothing but a 1 with a million zeros behind it. ;D

I think here is where I'm supposed to talk about long walks on the beach... but I'll just pass the torch. Speak here if you wish!

[Blackmoon]

Aha! An admirable start, sir.

I'm Blackmoon. You can call me Moony for short.

I'm from Minnesota, but I've moved around a lot and am currently living in Michigan.

I am also a fan of subversion. My pet trope is Deconstructor Fleet; I take every last trope and cliche I can find and I subvert, parody, tweak, and mangle the shit out of it until I create something I'm proud of. At the same time, I play tropes painfully straight for pure Rule of Cool. It's a good balance.
Artistically, I draw in a manga-inspired style, typically with an abundance of pitch-black shading. I call it "samurai noir". I like drawing fight scenes and visually striking characters, but am sadly deficient in drawing scenery and technology.

Rather the opposite of Mr. Cales, I used to be heavily into the tabletop RPG scene, but play less than I used to because my group drifted apart. I play a lot of video games these days, whatever I can get my hands on. Mostly fighters, first-person shooters, and action games like Devil May Cry.

As for me, I'm also a student; I'm majoring in French with a minor in Japanese, and I'm in my third year of college (seventh year of French classes, second of Japanese), with the intention of becoming a high school teacher. My goal is ultimately to learn as many languages as I can in one lifetime, if possible.

Who else? ;D

[cales]

Interesting! Next person who posts will be someone who's sort of into both tabletop RPGs and video games, and we'll have achieved balance!

French and Japanese. You must know some very impressive curses.

Watch out in Michigan! It's right next to Maine, and I've read enough Stephen King books to know that Maine is a terrifying place!

Your style sounds interesting. Could you post a sample?

[solstace]

I'm Solstace, and my style tends to vary depending on my mood. I'm not as good at drawing as I used to be, so a lot of my work at the moment is takes bits and pieces from reference pictures. I kinda suck at backgrounds. My weapons and armor designs tend to be inspired by the .hack// series.

Other than that, I am a hella awesome guitar player. I plan on majoring in either music performance or music instruction and minoring in Japanese.

I am sorta into tabletop RPG's and video games. Especially visual novels.

[cales]

I knew it! Balance has been achieved! Someone who is sort of into everything has been found! yes!

We need the power of the performing arts here. I approve of guitar.

[Blackmoon]

Certainly, Cales. This is a page from a comic I tried to start once, but gave up on, done in a more proper manga style. This is more of the pitch-black chiaroscuro type work I mentioned, but it's a little old.

And Solstace, .hack? Good! I like the outfits from that series, so if your work is inspired by that style, so much the better. ;D

[cales]

Always liked .hack's look, but never had time to get into it.

Samurai noir... an interesting style. I particularly like the second piece, as it has what can only be described as "ferocious shading", which does very well at off-setting characters and making things stark and, well, noir.

Now, I'm not an artist, but this is just the opinion of someone looking at it. Would angular characters not go very well with the shading? I was looking at the pictures, and thinking, " This would be perfect with hard-cut characters." People who are hard, all angular lines, like they'd been carved from granite, would go perfect with your shading style, I think.

Overall? I'm a fan of it.

[solstace]

I'm surprised you didn't link to your webcomic, Blackmoon.

Yeah, hard angles would definitely work well with that kind of shading.

Also, I'm very adept at coloring stuff in Photoshop. I figure it might come up eventually.

And yeah, my work is primarily inspired by Tetsuya Nomura of Final Fantasy fame, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Evangelion and .hack fame. So lots of zippers, skin tight outfits, belts, and overly complicated armors and weapons.

[cales]

solstace: Awesome. I'm a fan of that artwork myself. We'll have to hang out and come up with doujin ideas sometime.

[desertopa]

I'm Desertopa, and I am plagued with more ideas than I know what to do with. I can hardly look at a blank wall without coming up with a new story idea, which is a shame because that level of creative capacity really should have gone to someone with better self motivation. At least my writing abilities are generally adequate to do them justice when I actually put myself to the task, so I'm not another George Lucas, the greatest enemy of the proper execution of my own concepts.

I prefer to work with original characters and settings, but I could probably use the practice of writing faithfully for preexisting characters.

Also, since long before I joined this circle, I've been sitting on a manga idea that I thought was perfectly suited to a Samurai Noir style, which I think might be right up your alley, Blackmoon.

[Haven]

I'm Haven, and I'm the main character of real life.

But here I'm just another writer. My "real" style is sort of a semi-pretentious (or at least takes-itself-rather-seriously), poetic, magical realism/sci-fi kinda thing, a sample of which is on display here. But as the various level breaks and code switches embedded in this post may demonstrate, I'm fairly fluid and adaptable--which makes me suited to parody too, I guess.

And I like video games and tabletop (I'm in a campaign on the OotS boards which I occasionally like to talk about, and every so often I'll join in on what's basically a PUG for 4e D&D in Brooklyn), so yeah.

I live in Brooklyn at the moment, probably not for much longer since the final boss rush of college graduation is coming up in a few months. I like taking stupid pictures of myself and putting them online so you can laugh at me posing to beat up a tiny dragon or whatever. Also, I guess I'm willing to make an introduction a little disjointed if it lets me squeeze a few more Havenquest references. And I'm glad to see this thing still works here because I do it all the time.

[cales]

Desert! Good to see you here, man! As I told someone in a different board, and as Blackmoon verified, we'll do original work, doujin work, whatever. Hook yourself up with an artist- or another writer if you feel like having an editor onboard, too- and go hog wild!

Holy crap! If Haven's the Main Character, and he's a Kunin, it means we're all destined to save the world!

I call dibs on the Boisterous Bruiser archetype! CRY SOME MORE!

Sounds awesome, guys.

[w3]

Hello, I'm William. You can call me w3. I am currently a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majoring in mathematics. I hate describing myself so I'm just going to link to the things I've written and done.

Most of the stories I've written are on everything2, where they're mixed in with some factual writeups. Those can be seen at this finely-crafted link.

I've also done a webcomic, which I think sucks but other people liked for some reason I don't quite comprehend. Either way, the shitty POV-Ray art greatly limited me and is the reason I'd like to do things in collaboration this time around. You can read it here.

[Blackmoon]

desertopa: I might be interested in your idea!

[Tom]

I'm Tom.

People often compliment my maliciousness.

I draw some pretty screwed up stuff. And some crazy awesome stuff, too.