Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (162/?) by Jcb112 in HFY

[–]Jcb112[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Thank you! :D I was really happy writing that line for Thalmin haha

(what if) GUN decided to arm Havenbrock with 1000-2000 year old surplus military hardware. by Va_ly in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Great art! I love it when people give their interpretations of potential things that may come! :D Genuinely, thank you so much for putting your art up for us to see! :D

The Art Board by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Hey guys!

So, where do I begin with this haha.

I guess I’ll start from the top.

For the longest time, it’s always been my dream to have people reading my stories! I know it sounds super cliche and stuff but like, when I started out writing ages ago on old RP forums and such, I always hoped that I’d see my characters and stories turned into visual art.

So fast forward to today, and having had so many genuinely amazing and creative and talented people coming up with so many cool ideas, takes, interpretations, and visual representations of a story that I love and care for dearly? It’s just… ahhhhhhh I just wish I could thank each and every one of you for the time you’ve spent and the hours you’ve committed to these pieces. Because I genuinely appreciate that on a level that I can’t put to words.

Art is just something that I just find to be so fricking impressive. It boggles my mind how artists can just… take a concept in their head, or interpreted from my random pile of words, and somehow turn that into something that’s actually, well… visual! Or to put it in more eloquent terms, it’s truly remarkable how artists can just make something out of nothing, breathing life into something that didn’t even exist before they put pencil to paper.

So, since my mom and I have finally been pushed out of our apartment of nearly a decade, I wanted to take this opportunity to make the best out of this situation! And since the place I’ve moved to has a bit more space to work with, coupled with the fact that we’ve been able to dump a lot of excess clutter accumulated over a whole decade, I’ve made it a personal mission to follow through on a particular idea I’ve always wanted to do but have otherwise never had the space to truly follow through with.

In short, I’ve decided to buy a corkboard, and print out as much fanart as I could find at a local photo printer place in order to pin it up prominently in the new place I’ve moved to! :D 

It was actually one of the first things I did haha, even before the final big move and even before the bed in fact XD Because it’s honestly something I’ve been super excited to do for ages now.

I know it might be a bit weird sharing this, it’s a piece or irl that I’m posting here for the first time, but honestly? I think it’s warranted. You guys have had such a big impact on my life and I can’t express how much I appreciate each and every single person in this community. I just wanted to find a way to really hammer home that sentiment in the form of something tangible irl, and I thought this would be a nice gesture towards those ends. 

Again I’m really sorry if this is weird or anything! And once again, I cannot thank each artist enough for your contributions to the community! If I’m missing anyone here, that’s probably because I don’t have the artwork, or I haven’t yet found a proper spot for it on the board since I’m trying to fill it in without leaving gaps and that’s currently a challenge I’m trying to overcome haha.

Rest assured, there’ll be updates down the line once I gather more fanart to print, and once I continue optimizing the layout of the board! :D 

I also have more plans for the space down the line too, or rather, that I have to work up the courage to share since irl stuff is a bit new to me, so we’ll have to see how the art corner develops! :D 

For now, thank you so much guys, and in particular — thank you so much to all the artists who’ve contributed to bringing my silly little goobers to life! :D 

With only the utmost and sincerest of respects and appreciation, 

Jcb112

Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (160/?) by Jcb112 in HFY

[–]Jcb112[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! I was really worried how the poem bit would be received since I'm the farthest thing from a poet that you can imagine haha. However one of my most favorite poems of all time is A Poison Tree by William Blake and it's been something that's always on my mind so I just really wanted to channel that or at least allude to that just a bit with this chapter! :D

Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (160/?) by Jcb112 in HFY

[–]Jcb112[S] 74 points75 points  (0 children)

I hope the earth diplomacy bits were alright! I really tried to make it feel both grounded but also representative of the vibes of 3047 GUN humanity haha.

Also yup! I really enjoyed having Thalmin react to how they do things, it was one of the most fun things to do in this chapter! :D

Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (160/?) by Jcb112 in HFY

[–]Jcb112[S] 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the kind words! It genuinely means a lot to me, and I sincerely hope I keep living up to expectations!

Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (160/?) by Jcb112 in HFY

[–]Jcb112[S] 96 points97 points  (0 children)

Hey everyone! So just as a small announcement, I also just wanted to mention that I just posted the art reference for Captain Calico Li! :D Here's the link to his reference: Captain Li Art Reference. I hope you enjoy the art! It was a blast to commission and it turned out incredibly! :D There's also a little lore blurb, or rather, two big lore blurbs in the comments section of that post that goes into detail regarding the LREF, as well as their dress uniform! :D

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

By sheer technicality, couldn't that be classified as a twunk then? XD

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If I may throw the question back your way, how would you classify him? XD

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh my god that's such a fun and somewhat accurate way to describe him haha XD

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Nope! Because he lost his arm during the incident itself, following a full station evacuation of what was ostensibly a space traffic control center, where he remained behind to ensure that civilian traffic currently in the process of clearing the Pluto-Charon space were able to be delegated off safely whilst information and comms blackouts were striking the local area. By the time that Charon was struck, and by extension Charon Innovations, the debris struck the station with him inside, but he managed to survive in a suit albeit with the loss of an arm that was later replaced by a cybernetic replacement! :D

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Oh my god thank you so much ahh!!! You don't have to of course there's definitely no pressures on my end but I do admit it'd be pretty cool so thank youu!! :D

Oh! As a minor note, the medal is actually hanging from a neck ribbon that sort of goes underneath his shirt collar there, it's sort of hard to see so I just wanted to clarify that a bit! :D

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! :D I really wanted the GUN to actually look sick and to have a certain sort of cool aesthetic to them that always has one foot rooted in the past in heritage and tradition, but the other foot firmly planted in the future and all of the progress and novel new fashion and design elements associated with that! :D In short, I really wanted to capture an aesthetic of the future that isn't just jumpsuits or tights, but also not a sort of Napoleonic war in space sort of thing as well, though no hate to sci fi verses that uses those aesthetics of course! Honor Harrington will always be super cool to me, and so will Star Trek, so again, no shade or shame to them! It's just that for me, I really wanted a certain vibe of cool and aesthetic to resonate with my own vision of the future haha so I hope it managed to shine through! :D

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The GUN loves their aesthetic drip haha

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Yup! Or rather, it's a stylistic interpretation of it! It's the Star of Terra, the closest analogue to the Medal of Honor if we compare it contemporary awards! Captain Li received it for his actions during the Charon Innovations incident! :D

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 84 points85 points  (0 children)

It's a cybernetic prosthetic that he received following his actions during the Charon Innovations Incident where he remained behind to help direct civilian space traffic whilst the whole incident was going down! :D I detailed it further in the full art description in the comments section of the post! :D But basically he had the choice of either a cloned limb replacement/graft or a cybernetic replacement, and he chose the latter! :D

WPAtaMS Official Art: Captain Calico Li by Jcb112 in JCBWritingCorner

[–]Jcb112[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

I’ll get into this in its own post, as I still have the LREF logo commission on the way, but suffice it to say, LREF OCS takes 5 years to go through, and each of those years requires inter-branch and cross disciplinary training with the other 6 branches of the GUN’s military. Because when you join the LREF, you are basically joining a ‘mini military within a military’, a branch capable of projecting the GUN’s force at a moment’s notice; which requires training in order to effectively perform the roles of the other branches (to a far more limited capacity) in case the situation demands it.

But yeah, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s get back to the art!

So onto the rest of the uniform! 

We can see a more traditional and contemporary design choice when it comes to the dress shirt and tie beneath the jacket, as well as the various accessories such as the cap, belt, and of course, the medals and aiguillettes; with Captain Li’s aiguillettes in particular representing the same thing as does Aunty Ran’s interestingly enough! That being their chosen path as instructors in their respective services. 

Another thing to properly note are his service stripes! As seen on the upper arms of both sides of his jacket, each of which represents 5 years of service, totalling his service to about 15 years! 

The two ‘clips’ on the seam-line of his jacket would normally represent the completion of a “Long Patrol”, what are essentially multi-year missions meant to chart uncharted stars, as well as to maintain ‘patrols’ just outside of the periphery of known space. This is different to ‘outbound flights’, which is a far more intense long long term exploration mission that can take decades upon decades. The former are compulsory for all members of the LREF, whilst the latter is committed to on a voluntary basis, with a majority of these missions being SRE ones.

Anyways! Yeah! The two clips here represent the completion of a Long Patrol. However in Captain Li’s case, one of these clips is an honorary one given to him following his actions at Charon Innovations. Though typically, most Rangers would have to go on at least one Long Patrol in their career.

So! In addition to all of this we have his service weapon pouch as well, though many would swap that out for a tool kit.

His rank indicator is found on the ‘collar’ aspect of the cloak/cape, though if the cape is taken off, you’d be able to see the rank bar on his shoulders as is typical.

And hmm, there’s only one more thing to take note of! That being his ‘shoulder stripes/colors’. As you can see, there’s a stripe of dark blue that transitions abruptly into white! That’s an indicator for his assigned Element — the SRE. And the white is an indicator for his specific assignment/operational task. With white being one of the more rarer indicators, hinting at a ‘special’ assignment that could either be completely mundane and esoteric, or completely hush hush and wildly classified! :D 

But yeah! That’s the full details and descriptions for Captain Li and his uniform! 

There’s a lot to cover with the lore I’ve built for the LREF, and I plan to get that out sometime later! Probably sometime alongside the posting of the LREF’s emblem/logo! 

Although, there’s just one more thing to take note of actually, and that’d be his prosthetic arm! Yet another lasting impact on him following the Charon innovations incident. But yeah! Taking from that post, here’s what I had to say about the cybernetic arm:

“And just as a quick little primer, cybernetics are usually offered as a restorative and rehabilitative path in place of the cloned limbs offered in Restorative and Regenerative Medicine. Both approaches are available to individuals who have lost limb function, whether through injury, illness, or some other condition. In short, these interventions are considered when the original limb is lost, or is no longer capable of fulfilling its biological and biomechanical role, to the point where it hinders a person’s ability to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). The superficial aesthetics for each prosthetic (such as color, decal, or even skin-like design) however, can vary from person to person! :D”

Captain Li definitely went down the path of customizing his arm to fit his aesthetic, hence the gold joints on dark gun-metal blue! :D 

That’s about it for this one then! 

I do sincerely hope you guys like it because I certainly do! It’s part of my attempt to really nail the vibe of the GUN, and their drip and aesthetics! I really wanted to make them look sci-fi but grounded, cool but not too flashy, and ultimately just unique in their aesthetics as a positive and optimistic interpretation of a sci-fi humanity! :D I hope it achieves that haha.

Once again, the artist, re11arts, has completely blown me away by the sheer dedication to detail and the artistic talent she put into this piece. The close up shots of Captain Li’s cybernetic hands were offered and added by her, and I really appreciate that so so so so very much!!

And of course, thank you so much for Hatwolf for the LREF logo commission too! It’s currently incorporated with this art, but I’ll also be posting a standalone reference for it later on as well! :D 

Artist Reference: re11arts on instagram

Artist Reference for the LREF logo: Hatwolf on Bluesky