########## # Qoheleth - title: Front cover collection: qoheleth authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/qoheleth-front.png url: /gallery/qoheleth-front.png description: The front cover for *Qoheleth* features Dear and Ioan walking outside Dear's house. The ground falling away into voxels was a lovely choice by Iris that continued throughout the various books in the Post-Self Cycle. - title: Back cover collection: qoheleth authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/qoheleth-back.png url: /gallery/qoheleth-back.png description: The back cover features AwDae stepping out to see the wind farm, based on the National Laboratory of the Rockies' [Distributed Wind Research Facilities](https://www.nlr.gov/wind/facilities-distributed-wind). - title: Tea collection: qoheleth authors: - Julian Norwood image: /gallery/thumbs/awdae-1.png url: /gallery/awdae-1.png description: | > *The water quickly came to a boil. After pouring it into the mug, AwDae hiked emself up onto the counter by the edge of the sink and let eir tail dangle into it. It would get wet, but that is just what happens with sinks.* - title: Priscilla collection: qoheleth authors: - Julian Norwood image: /gallery/thumbs/awdae-2.png url: /gallery/awdae-2.png description: | > *And then AwDae fell to eir knees and let the cat step up onto eir thighs, and ey lifted her in eir arms and buried eir snout in her warm, purring side, and cried.* - title: Dear collection: qoheleth authors: - johnny d. image: /gallery/thumbs/dear.png url: /gallery/dear.png description: | > *A short, slight…thing, steps from the next room through one of the two doors on the far wall and calls for attention. To call it a person seems almost misleading. It's a dog. A well-dressed dog?* ######### # Toledot - title: Front cover collection: toledot authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/toledot-front.png url: /gallery/toledot-front.png description: The front cover for *Toledot* features End Waking and Ioan during their meeting, standing at the edge of the ravine while, again, the ground falls away into voxels.End Waking wound up a more popular character than expected. Everyone loves a nerd. - title: Back cover collection: toledot authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/toledot-back.png url: /gallery/toledot-back.png description: The back cover features Yared Zerezghi stepping through a door to meet True Name. It was decided at this point that the back covers would feature a door motif that carried through the Cycle. - title: Shove collection: toledot authors: - Kris Weaver image: /gallery/thumbs/shove.png url: /gallery/shove.png description: | > *Ey shoved her over onto the grass, laughing. "You nut."* > > *She lay there among the grass, giggling helplessly. Among the grass where a brand new dandelion poked through the green in front of her snout. One that had not been there before.* - title: Cairns collection: toledot authors: - Jade image: /gallery/thumbs/cairns.png url: /gallery/cairns.png description: | > *Codrin laughed, shrugged, and knelt down to begin building the next pile of stones. "You got any better ideas, fox?"* > > *It knelt beside them, digging up stones of its own and handing them to em. "Of course I do. Do ask our friends, as I think they will have much to say, but also, while poking around, I saw that several of the founders have made the launch. I am not surprised that this is the case."* - title: Dandelions collection: toledot authors: - Kris Weaver image: /gallery/thumbs/dandelions.png url: /gallery/dandelions.png description: | > *And before them sat one who was not like any of the others, and yet was exactly like all of them. When she focused, she was able to look like skunk or like human, and her eyes were able to share in some of that softness, but when she lost focus, waves of both crashed against her in a violent tempest, splashing fur up over cheeks, or skin down over paws.* > > *"I am sorry," she said through a dry throat, then laughed. "I am having a bad day."* ######### # Nevi'im - title: Front cover collection: neviim authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/neviim-front.png url: /gallery/neviim-front.png description: | The front cover of *Nevi'im* features a few Odists, as well as Turun Ko and Turun Ka. As before, a portion of the world is breaking into voxels — in this case, the sky was chosen deliberately — and the distortion grows. - title: Back Cover collection: neviim authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/neviim-back.png url: /gallery/neviim-back.png description: The back cover features Ioan and May Then My Name. Once more, the door makes an apperance. This was also the first depiction of May, who seems to have picked up a red dress as an iconic outfit that shows up in many of her other appearances. - title: Why ask questions when the answers will not help? collection: neviim authors: - johnny d. image: /gallery/thumbs/awnh.png url: /gallery/awnh.png description: | > *The walk down the hall was a slow and unsteady affair, and Codrin couldn't help but see every one of True Name's two and a half centuries in the way she moved. She looked as she always had, was as strong as she'd ever been, and yet each one of those long years seemed to be a weight she had to draw along behind her. She kept her grip on eir forearm throughout, however, as though the contact kept her pinned to one reality.* > *Ey guided her into her room and helped her to sit down on the edge of her bed, and even then, it took her a few long seconds to loosen her grip.* - title: Stolon collection: neviim authors: - Jade image: /gallery/thumbs/stolon.png url: /gallery/stolon.png description: | > *The two scientists seemed to have fallen back into their own world, leaving the others to stand by and watch. > > "Two of a kind," ey heard Sarah murmur, and ey nodded, grinning along with her.* ######### # Mitzvot - title: Front cover collection: mitzvot authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/mitzvot-front.png url: /gallery/mitzvot-front.png description: The front cover of *Mitzvot* features True Name, shown larger than any other character to date. At last, the voxelization begins to affect a character rather than just the world. In the background, Ioan and May Then My Name rush after her. - title: Back cover collection: mitzvot authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/mitzvot-back.png url: /gallery/mitzvot-back.png description: The back cover features Ioan stepping outside to confront Jonas. Smarmy bastard. - title: Monologue collection: mitzvot authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/monologue.png url: /gallery/monologue.png description: | > *The skunk had been sitting on a barstool, hunched over a pint and slurring half to the glass, half to some absent bartender. She slid to her feet, wobbled for a moment, then righted herself.* > *"Actually, you know what? I have heard it said so many times that to hate — truly hate, burn up inside with that passion — is to actually be in love with the object of your hatred, but I think there is a little bit of hatred in love, too. You fall so completely for someone that you just cannot help but resent them. It is a mirror of that hatred for yourself, for all your jagged edges and prickly burrs, a reflection of the resentment that you feel towards yourself for having been built to love. And look at me!" She gestured down at herself, a grand sweep of the paw outsized in her intoxication. "I fuckin' loathe myself! Can you imagine how deeply I must love others, then?"* - title: Merge collection: mitzvot authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/merge.png spoiler_image: true spoiler_image_text: Spoiler url: /gallery/merge.png description: | > Both Ioan and True Name watched as the down-tree instance of May scrubbed her paws over her face vigorously for a moment, gave a shaky wave, and then quit. True Name winced and screwed her eyes shut, and the May who had knelt with her on the bed reached out and took the skunk's paws in her own. > > *"Go ahead."* - title: Writerskunk collection: mitzvot authors: - Jade image: /gallery/thumbs/writerskunk.png url: /gallery/writerskunk.png description: May Then My Name working on her monologue. ############## # Motes Played - title: Cover collection: motes-played authors: - B. Root image: /gallery/thumbs/motes-played.png url: /gallery/motes-played.png description: B. Root's pictures were, in a roundabout way, an inspiration for Motes in the first place, and so he was a natural choice for a cover artist. The cover incoporates the black shape that appears in many of Motes's own paintings. - title: Interior doodles collection: motes-played authors: - B. Root image: /gallery/thumbs/mp_all.png url: /gallery/mp_all.png description: | Each chapter of the book comes with its own doodle, taking the form of a black shape in watercolor painted over wax resist (read: white crayon). - title: Bonus doodle collection: motes-played authors: - B. Root image: /gallery/thumbs/mp_bonus.png url: /gallery/mp_bonus.png description: A bonus doodle, because Little Motes deserves breakfast burritos, too. ####### # Marsh - title: Front cover collection: marsh authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/marsh-front.png url: /gallery/marsh-front.png description: The front cover depicts the Marshans and Dry Grass (and Vos, just because) placing tiles in *Ton Limáni Ton Khromáton*, the bay of colors. Marsh themself is, of course, missing. - title: Back cover collection: marsh authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/marsh-back.png url: /gallery/marsh-back.png description: Yet more of Ton Limáni Ton Khromáton, dire in its emptiness. The idea for the sim came from Andréa C Mason, who wrote a short piece about it for a Q&A. - title: Headshots collection: marsh authors: - Iris Jay image: /gallery/thumbs/marsh-characters.png url: /gallery/marsh-characters.png description: Some headshot sketches of some of the various characters in *Marsh*. ################ # Additional art - title: Prim and proper collection: additional-art authors: - Jade image: /gallery/thumbs/ref-3.png url: /gallery/ref-3.png description: Taken out of context of the ref sheet below, this is often used to represent Rav From Whence Do I Call Out. - title: Odist ref collection: additional-art authors: - Jade image: /gallery/thumbs/ref.png spoiler_image: true spoiler_image_text: Artistic Nudity url: /gallery/ref.png description: A reference for Slow Hours specifically, but also the skunk-shaped Odists in general. Contains artistic nudity. - title: Post-dance lounging collection: additional-art authors: - Roxanna image: /gallery/thumbs/lounge.png url: /gallery/lounge.png description: After a night on the town, Beholden and A Finger Pointing relax together. - title: Dancing collection: additional-art authors: - Roxanna image: /gallery/thumbs/what_right_have_i.png url: /gallery/what_right_have_i.png description: What Right Have I in the midst of some dance or another. - title: Beat Saber v49 collection: additional-art authors: - Roxanna image: /gallery/thumbs/motes.png url: /gallery/motes.png description: You *know* they have Beat Saber sys-side, and you *know* Motes is super into it... - title: SERG collection: additional-art authors: - Roxanna image: /gallery/thumbs/coffee-leak.png url: /gallery/coffee-leak.png description: Art for the story ["Coffee Leak"](/stories/coffee-leak). Tomash is here to help~ - title: Chalking up the sidewalks collection: additional-art authors: - ashenwhiskers image: /gallery/thumbs/chalk.png url: /gallery/chalk.png description: Motes's favorite pastime. ######### # Fan art - title: Douglas collection: fan-art authors: - Nat image: /gallery/thumbs/hadje.png url: /gallery/hadje.png description: Fan art of Douglas Hadje inspecting Lagrange. - title: Sasha collection: fan-art authors: - Seþþe image: /gallery/thumbs/sasha-seþþe.png url: /gallery/sasha-seþþe.png description: Sasha enjoying some coffee - title: Full of skunks collection: fan-art authors: - Fudge image: /gallery/thumbs/full-of-skunks.png url: /gallery/full-of-skunks.png description: My God... - title: Witchyskunk collection: fan-art authors: - goop image: /gallery/thumbs/witchy-motes.png url: /gallery/witchy-motes.png description: Motes all done up in a costume for Halloween. Or Purim. Or just for funsies. - title: Skunkboard collection: fan-art authors: - biddyfox image: /gallery/thumbs/skateboard.png url: /gallery/skateboard.png description: A bit of fan art that led to the drabble ["In it for the long haul"](https://motes-played.post-self.ink/long-haul) - title: Lonely Hunter collection: fan-art authors: - biddyfox image: /gallery/thumbs/lonely-hunter.png url: /gallery/lonely-hunter.png description: Some fan art of May Then My Name. - title: May then My Name and True Name collection: fan-art authors: - biddyfox image: /gallery/thumbs/may-true-name.png url: /gallery/may-true-name.png description: They are friends and if anything happens to them I will lose my mind. - title: Ranger collection: fan-art authors: - enbydergstrous image: /gallery/thumbs/ranger.png url: /gallery/ranger.png description: End Waking and a night stalker from Fallout in an uneasy truce. - title: What's inside? collection: fan-art authors: - enbydergstrous image: /gallery/thumbs/pain.png url: /gallery/pain.png description: Pain.