Oh my!
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Lion's Arch
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lost necklace
on December 24, 2022
at 12:00 am
tragic
UPDATE:
Just as a heads-up, I’m taking a two week break for the holidays. After next week’s Apocalypse Child page, there won’t be a page up for either project until January 21st. The last page for this episode will go up at that time. See you then! Happy holidays!
on January 21, 2023
at 12:00 am
Meeting FPS.
ANNOUNCEMENT
We’ve reached the end of Amulet of Bolli part 1, and so it’s time to talk about Tora Steals Things’ future!
Where is Tora Steals Things going from here?
Amulet of Bolli part 2 will start Feb 4th in a new format: illustrated prose!
So no more comics?
Yes! I’m sure that’ll be disappointing to some of you–comics are fun! This change wasn’t made lightly however.
I won’t bore y’all with the details but the reality is that TST just got way too big for what it is: there’s at least 18 stories left in it and at the rate I’m producing it, I could be at this for another two decades at least! Being a fan work, TST is also pretty heavily dependant on an already defined audience–it doesn’t have a lot of room for growth.
In other words, as a project, TST is far too much work for what it is. My choices were either to end it entirely or continue it in a format that’s easier for me to create regularly.
This means more story in each update!
The real benefit to this change of format is that a story that would take a year to deliver in comic form can be delivered in a few months instead. I’m going to be playing this by ear–we may not get through all the 18 stories that are left, but at the every least we’ll get the conclusion to Amulet of Bolli.
What happens once Tora Steals Things is done?
I’m not done with Tora as a character, frankly. I love TST but I don’t truly believe it was the work that showed off his character best. There’s always been another project for him (codename SG) but as I’m trying to launch Apocalypse Child properly by the end of this year, it may be on the back burner for awhile.
Honestly I won’t lie, I’m personally very excited about this change!
This will free up some of my time for other projects. A lot of that will likely go into Apocalypse Child (as there are many ambitious aspects to it right now) but I imagine I’ll be able to use that time towards SG or other projects as well.
I will of course, keep you all updated as we move forward!
on February 4, 2023
at 12:00 am
“Is Dwag in?”
Halladr blinked, startled by the familiar voice coming from the absolutely stunning sylvari standing outside his mentor’s abode. Gripping the door handle, Halladr simply stared, trying to make sense of what—who?—he was looking at.
The sylvari was dressed in the most revealing evening gown he’d ever seen. It was like the sort of thing a showgirl would wear: ruby red, shiny, and with tasteful slits up the side. Except whoever made this dress had decided to take “tasteful” and move it straight to scandalous; making the slits reach even higher and the neckline plunge even deeper. There wasn’t a single safe place to rest his eyes without turning as red as her dress. He gulped audibly, trying not to eye the black bit of lace peeking out beneath the red cloth on her thighs.
“Uhh…” He wracked his brain trying to figure out who among Dwag’s many clients and associates this could be, but came up short. It was the middle of the night, which frankly wasn’t unusual for clients of Dwag, but it was definitely unusual for them to come dressed like this.
Well unless…
Unless they were…
Please don’t let it be—
“Fer fuck’s sake, Hall, we doin’ this again?” The sylvari grumbled impatiently.
on February 4, 2023
at 12:02 am
And suddenly a heavy weight found its way to Halladr’s stomach. Only one person called him Hall.
“B-Bandi…?” Halladr squeaked.
The plant didn’t speak, only responding with a wry grin that didn’t reach their eyes.
“Wh-Why are you dressed like—?”
“She in or not? Dwag.”
“Right uh, she’s in but…” Before Halladr could stop him—her?—Bandi made their way through the door. The sylvari’s waxy skin brushed against Halladr’s chest for a brief moment, their slight touch transforming the weight in his stomach into frantic butterflies. Despite being at least twice Bandi’s size, he found himself shrinking against the wall. Dwag’s foyer suddenly felt small, far too small for a full size male norn and a sylvari at least.
“Sh-She’s a bit busy right now!” He’d meant to say that normally. He did not say that normally.
Personally, he was kind of hoping to chase out Bandi as quickly as possible. The plant made him… very anxious, to say the least. Besides, he wasn’t lying, Dwag was pretty much always busy. As one of the best engineers in the city, her services were highly sought after. It was why he’d sought her out himself to be her apprentice after all.
In fact, right now she was deep in the midst of a difficult commission for a local business, one that Halladr was helping her with just moments before the doorbell rang. They really were busy! And the deadline was coming up… in a week? Or something? And it wasn’t exactly crunch time but it was definitely busy. Too busy for whatever weird nonsense Bandi was up to at least, right?
…Right?
“Halladr? Who’s at the door?” A surly high-pitched voice rang from a nearby intercom. “Tell em we’re not buying anything.”
“Who the fuck sells shit at this hour?” Bandi snorted.
The norn gave a nervous laugh in reply, then hastily edged his way to the intercom. He pressed down the talk button, keeping his back to Bandi as much as possible.
“Dwag? Ma’am?”
“Did you chase them away? We got work to do.”
He took a deep breath.
“It’s Bandi.”
Within seconds he could hear something like glass shattering from the speaker and prayed to the spirits it wasn’t their last power stone. What followed was a long series of
on February 4, 2023
at 12:04 am
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muffled cursing and a drawn out sigh.
Halladr chanced a glance at Bandi while he waited and found the plant casually dusting off their dress. They caught him looking and waved, sending the norn’s attention back to the intercom with newfound haste.
“Okay. Okay uh, Halladr?” Dwag finally responded.
“Ma’am.”
Please send Bandi away, he prayed. Say that we’re too busy.
“Can you keep him company for like five minutes? I gotta clean up a bit.”
He gulped audibly. Five minutes?! Alone?! With-with—
“C-Can’t I help?” He tried.
Please don’t leave me with him! Her? Them?!
“No, I got this. Watch him and make sure he doesn’t steal anything.”
“B-But—”
“What’s the problem? It’s just five min—is he wearing something weird again?”
Of course he is!!
“Yes!” Halladr hissed.
Dwag sighed, exasperated. “Halladr, you can’t keep freaking out when he—whatever, I’m not asking you to make conversation with him, alright? Five minutes!”
She hung up.
Dejected, Halladr dragged himself back to Bandi’s side.
“She said to wait five minutes…”
“Aight.” Bandi simply shrugged. They weren’t half as bothered as Halladr was. They never were.
Bandi started appearing at their workshop roughly half a year ago. Apparently Dwag hired him for a job once and they’d been business associates ever since. Dwag gave Bandi information and Bandi somehow got them supplies for their work in return. Halladr didn’t know the details beyond that. He wasn’t allowed in on their meetings and neither Dwag nor Bandi felt obliged to share much about their transactions.
You don’t have to make conversation with him.
He held onto that thought like a lifeline. It’s not that he disliked Bandi particularly, he just didn’t really know how to talk to them, and Bandi certainly didn’t make things easy for him. Not when they kept showing up dressed weird!
on February 18, 2023
at 12:00 am
He chanced another glance at Bandi who was in the midst of reaching down for something in their boot. Without meaning to, Halladr’s eyes followed down the length of their leg and heat rushed to his cheeks. He watched, transfixed as their slender fingers pulled out some sort of long cigarette holder, rolled a cigarette into it, then placed it between glossy full lips—were they wearing lipstick?
“Yer starin’ mate,” Bandi said plainly, and Halladr looked away with a face that felt like it was on fire.
This was by far the worst outfit yet! Worse than the time they showed up dressed as a clown, or a lionguard, some sort of mascot shaped like a quaggan, a doctor, a janitor, a lost “noble” complete with tragic backstory, a prisoner (which maybe wasn’t actually a costume, Halladr wasn’t sure), a farmer, a butler—the list went on!
That wasn’t even counting the more… inappropriate attire Bandi had shown up in: sexy doctor, sexy “noblewoman” but this time with a happier backstory, sexy quaggan? (HOW?), somehow sexier doctor, sexy prisoner (again not sure that one was a costume—the handcuffs looked very real), sexy journalist, sexy scientist, sexy witch (okay that one maybe gets a pass, it was Halloween), another somehow even sexier doctor, and a sexy maid!
And now they were in this: a sexy showgirl or something? An outrageously revealing dress at the very least. It was maddening! Why were they dressed like that? Why
on February 18, 2023
at 12:02 am
couldn’t they show up in something normal for once?!
And why did they have to look so damn good in it?!
“Damn it.” Bandi sighed. They’d been trying and failing to light their cigarette with their pistol’s flintlock. They didn’t even look at Halladr when they asked, “Got a light, Hall?”
It took him a minute to register the question before hastily searching his pockets. He didn’t really smoke but they did use a lighter for their work sometimes. Scrambling a bit, he fished one out of his tool belt and held it out as far from himself as he was able.
The sylvari snorted. “Ya think I’m gonna bite ya or somethin’?”
“Huh? N-No I just—”
Bandi leaned in to light the cigarette and grinned.
“I might,” they purred and Halladr almost leapt out of his own skin.
He snapped the lighter shut, and spun away to stare at the wall as Bandi chuckled through puffs of smoke.
This was the longest five minutes of his life.
Dwag had told him he was too focused on this, that Bandi was a strange little plant with strange hobbies and he should just let it go—but how could he?! The outfits were one thing, but when they started showing up in ones like these—were they a boy or a girl?!
Dwag said they were a boy and he thought that at first too, but they definitely didn’t look like a boy right now! And besides, they were a sylvari, right? How did sylvari work? They apparently copied humans who were like tiny norn as far as Halladr was concerned, but how far did that copy go? I mean they were plants too and plants could be both, right? Boy and girl?
If they were a girl… well it didn’t matter: he was a very very very straight norn man interested in norn women. He was only interested out of intellectual curiosity, that was all. But you can’t just ask that, right?! You can’t just ask if someone’s a boy or a girl, right?!
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He caught a glimpse of Bandi letting out a long wisp of smoke. The ceiling’s lantern flickered above them, sending waves of light dancing across the glossy fabric of their dress, glinting around their neckline and rolling down across their—
INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY.
He felt like he was going to burst into flames and discover an aptitude for elementalism. He was going to burn up like tinder in this stupid way too small foyer from embarrassment or confusion or both or—?! It had to have been five minutes by now. What was Dwag doing? What could be taking her so—
“Halladr?” The intercom buzzed and he jolted to attention.
Oh thank the spirits!
“Send Bandi in.”
