Fireshrike

Hello dA friends! Long time no see. I'm happy to say I finally have a place you can find my art again - riiiiight //waggles my fingers// here! Whoo! Pretty much everything on there right now is stuff that was never on dA, so even if you've been watching me since the beginning there's probably stuff there you haven't seen.

I know a decent amount of people still like my art on here and I appreciate that interest a lot, so this is especially for those of you that still think of me from time to time :] Thank you for continually enjoying my work, even after I no longer have a presence on dA!

If I ever make YCHs or adoptables or anything I'll probably put them on dA, but for the most part the linked blog will be the best place to find me now.

Best wishes,

Shrike

Heya o/ Been a while! Since the last time I posted here I've graduated college, helped make an animated short, and got my first paying job! It's only part-time and not in my main area of interest, but I got suuuper lucky with the work environment and it's been a great way to dip my toes into the working world + have a bit of a lifeline while I try to figure out how to use my metaphorical wings. XD

To get to the point, I figured it's worth "officially" noting that I proooobably won't be really active on dA again in the foreseeable future. I won't hard-stop rule it out, but ye. Some of it is just life changes, part of it's that I never really got used to Eclipse. I think the site needed some UI updates and stuff but Eclipse just wasn't it, and from what (admittedly little) I've seen, the staff really haven't made any attempt to continue iterating on what Eclipse introduced. Kinda sucks cause dA kind of fills a niche; Twitter is...mmm. Well. Twitter lol, and it's really not great for art (very limited tagging options, stuff gets lost within days, basically no ability to actually -talk- about your creations, etc.). Tumblr is great for art imo but has other setbacks that are a bit harder to define. ArtStation gets -sort of- close, but its heavy emphasis on being a professional portfolio site makes it hard for me to really use it just for fun and sharing.

All that aside, it's probably safe to expect that I won't be using dA anymore XD Seasons of life and stuff. If you'd like to know my Tumblr url/Discord/etc. please feel free to ask, especially if we have ever been friends, in a group like DotW together, or simply on good terms!

Hope everyone reading this is doing well,

-Shrike

Heyo o/

Figured since it's been... //looks at calendar

...seven months? Eight...?

...since my last real activity, I should probably do some kind of quick "HI I'M ALIVE" journal XD

Honestly I don't have that much to say as far as updates go, since I left DotW I really haven't been on dA in any significant capacity. It's part of the usual mindless-social-media-scrolling tour and that's about it XD For all intents and purposes I'm not really active here anymore. And that probably won't be like...forever haha, but I don't really draw enough lately to even find use in dA. As it is I'm more consistently active on Tumblr, and even then I'm still kind of (re: a lot of) a recluse XP

As far as life stuff goes, I'm graduating college at the end of the year, which is sorta terrifying and I'm trying not to think about it more than I have to :') I definitely don't feel ready! Though I'm sure something will work out in the end, and I have some possible connections I can lean on hopefully! I've been trying to find some kind of part-time job in my area too, though sadly with limited success so far.

On a brighter note, I finally worked up the courage last fall to apply to my major's animation lab, and now I'm working with a team of other students to create an animated short! I'm working on the project as a lighter/look dev artist, and the experience so far has been really wonderful and the other students are awesome. It's really cool to see everyone's ideas and hard work come together and slowly stack into something entirely new, and to feel like I'm contributing something meaningful that people will enjoy. For a long time I was scared of being overwhelmed by it, and I guess just the change to my life it might bring? So I never signed up. I didn't really feel like I could offer anything they needed, either - but trying out for anim lab has turned out to be a really good decision; my only regret now is not doing so sooner, I really wish I had. Once the short is finished in December, too, I will probably upload here some of the work I did for it.

In case anyone's been worried about me at all since my last check-in with dA, I'm definitely doing better than I was then! There was a lot of soul-searching internal stuff I was grappling with and my grandmother also passed away during that time - which for better or worse was not unforeseen, but it is what it is and it still took the wind out of me for a while, especially on top of everything else. Since January or so I've gotten my feet back under me better. The past few weeks or so have been sort of up and down, I think because of the job searching + not having the semester workload to keep me grounded, but I'm hanging in there ^_^

That's all I can really think of, and since this journal's already getting pretty long I'll end it there! Hope this journal finds y'all well. If anyone wants my Tumblr url feel free to ask (though fair warning I might let my queue run the blog for a few weeks or so soonish, in order to try and limit my social media time). And anyone who has my Discord is always welcome to message me there!

Hello, everyone! Shrike here :D

You may be wondering what’s going on with Tentaka since there’s been no news on that for a while. Well...good news, the pack is no longer disbanding!

In short, a newcomer to the pack will arrive, claiming she is heir to the pack and that she is the descendant of the reigning Emperor and Empress at the time of the ancient Tentaka’s demise. She then claims that she alone has a divine right to rule, an assertion which, if true, is supported by Tentaka law, and puts the validity of Akuto’s leadership on the rocks.

The newcomer - named Zenko - is young, but exceptionally well-versed in Tentakan history and culture. Having been steeped in it since birth by her parents and grandparents, she brings with her a deeper and truer understanding of its ways - understanding that Akuto, being an outsider, could not have, and a fact of which both wolves are acutely aware.

Akuto soon abdicates the role of Empress, willingly, and without consulting anyone. Zenko swiftly replaces her.

Zenko wastes no time reforming the pack. Most changes are relatively minor and simply add nuance, but she has much higher expectations for members and her emphasis on enforcing tradition borders on draconian. Unlike Akuto, she also follows the traditional Tentakan mentality of “insider” and “outsider”, seeing any not born in Tentaka as “secondary” members with less validity as Tentakans.

Soon after taking the mantle of Empress, Zenko will task Kage and Itachi with scouting out and finding any remaining descendents of the pack, intending to fill the ranks with them. So if you’ve been itching to make a character for Tentaka but weren’t sure how, now’s your chance!

--

In essence, the pack will be under new in-character leadership, and Akuto will become a regular member. How long will this go on, you might ask? The answer is, we shall see... ;)

As far as the “why” behind this decision goes: due to a few things changing in my life, I wanted to try and give the pack another shot, and am hoping this ongoing plot will give Tentaka a direction and some stability going forward. As it is, I really appreciate all the support everyone has offered already - hopefully this will be as exciting a plotline in reality as it is in my head! xD

As far as characters go - any characters that were moved out of the pack or retired due to the disbandment plans may bring them back into the pack/Domain free of charge!

That's all for now. Hope everyone is doing well!