Burfordus’ Blog

Well, it is official. What women say about men is true, and what men say about women is true. So here goes the biggest pair of generalisations in the history of humanity. Seriously.

In a nutshell, a dude screwed over a good friend of mine by leaving her for another woman. Twice.
I mean, what the eff you see kay?!
After she had come back from a grief-relieving holiday, I made it my mission to give this lady her confidence back, and for a large part mission was successful. We even dated for a couple of weeks, and it was going swimmingly.
He came back, pestered her with phone calls, which made her cry alot, and she dumped me due to being scared that I’ll hurt her.

Now, this was a few weeks ago. Forward to present day: She’s getting back with the twice-leaving bloke.
I asked her about this (numerous times since we’re back to being mates, which I’m more cool with than being with her for some reason), and she said that she “is comfortable with him even though she knows he’ll hurt her again and again”

Hold on.

Previous blokey hurt her, lots.
She didnt want to be with me because she’s scared of being hurt.
So she’s getting back with bloke who hurt her, because she knows she’ll get hurt anyway.

This has happened to three of my female friends. Are women inherently emotionally mascocistic?

I’m so angry, I’m suffering from a bad case of direct rage, incomprehension, and just general “I’m going to rip the f**king blokes arms off” syndrome. To rememdy this, I’m going to Dannychoo.com and have a few beers.

-rant-
AB

Righty, hope you had a Merry Christmas and all that, not long now til New Years. Oh joy. Oh I’ve paused work o the doujinshi, but that should resume soon.

Anyways, I thought I’d commit to writing my own version of a well known mythological race: the Vampires.
This was inspired by a pair of sources, the awesome movie that is Interview with a Vampire, and the artwork above (courtesy of Games Workshop).

Origins: When Christ was nailed upon the timber, naturally he bled greatly. When the life left him at last, his blood was lapped upon by a bat. As divine blood it was, God punished the animal for feeding upon his earthly son. Agonies ripped through its body as it grew in size and its appetite for destructionand blood increased to almost demonic proportions. It had become immortal.
As further punishment, God ‘blessed’ the resulting creature with emotion and self awareness. This was perhaps the most bizarre of punishments, as the beast recognised its great sin when Christ rose again and met it in secret, before his return to the world of men. It wept in front of him, but had not the tongue to beg forgiveness. This frustrated it, for if the son of God could not see its despair through its tears, how could he claim that his father was all seeing and all merciful? Thus, during the next two hundred years this frustration grew to hatred, and hatred to madness.
The first true Vampire was born, damned in soul and hungry for the life of men.

When it finally accepted the beast within, God’s damned son, Lucifer, granted it the power to reap many men, for it was more akin to a man-sized bat and just as delicate as his smaller kin. After seven hundred and seventy seven days in hibernation, it awoke to a new body, with great girth and strength most unholy. Its claws were like those of a bear (as was its new, terrible height), and his teeth grew to extend forward of its head.
As part of his bargain with the Devil (who better to speak to a beast than a fallen Angel?) it could make companions from man, but their souls would be set loose for Lucifer’s servants to occupy the resulting host body. L’echange du Sang would not be perfect, and each generation would be more human than the last, but the strength and the hunger always remained.

Boring Factual Bit:
- The whole garlic/herbal allergy thing is just Dark Age rubbish, a relatively cheap alternative to beweaponing the population.
- The inherant shame in feeding on Christ and the dealing with the Devil makes Crosses a useful deterrant to the body of a Vampire, as a cross on the door or windows would make the beast look for a meal that did not remind it of its own damnation. However, this can easily be overcome by the more human Vampires whos possession by demonic spirits is minimal, but still there.
- The bodies of Vampires can take alot of punishment, and more so as they get older…but I’d love to find any organism (or Christian Mythological creature) that can survive its heart being pierced and decapitation….
- Silver works well against them, just as in werewolves who share a similar past. It is a pure element, frequently used to imprison and/or banish demons. Same principle applies to the Vampires.
- Water saturates the fur of the flight capable Vampires, and inhibits such movements until it dries off.
- Daylight has no effect whatsoever. But Vampires are descended from bats, which are nocturnal and dislike to venture out in the day. They can, and have, hunted in daylight hours.

Well, here endeth the essay. Hope you enjoyed my take on a well known tale.
-roar-
AB

Hey all, this is just another quickie post to share what is possibly my most favouritistest song in recent months.

I present to you, Never Enough by Five Finger Death Punch.

I know, lame name for a band, but give it a shot, you might like it. Its not screaming and mindless guitar thrashing, so give it a go.
Go oooooooon…

-sexified-
AB

Just a quicky.

Whoever said that doing a doujin is a quick and happy process is talking poop. I’m not gonna go into details but I’m 4 days into drawing, And i’ve only done the rough sketches on 1 and a half pages!

This is gonna be painful =_=;

-croak-
AB

Righty, just to clarify, I havent done any form of landscape before, so its a little crap ^^;

Basically, its the setting for the first scene in my as yet unnamed doujinshi. The Valle de Sognante (Dreaming Valley), overlooked by the Passi de Gigantes (Giants stariway), with the A Casa da me Recupero (Recovery house).

All translations are aproximates, so dont get cross if its wrong

-miew-
AB

Righty, after numerous sketches and reincarnations, here we have the final version of the antagonist (baddie) for me doujin/doujinshi.

Initially, he’s unable to talk, so he communicates via a pair of chalkboards between himself and Ariel. He can hear fine, but can talk . He’s pretty sadistic, and very amoral, so he sees things from a different light from Ariel’s innocence and well defined moral compass. Oh, he’s got metal right arm and legs, with a deformed left arm with supporting frame. Crazy eh?

Later on, when Ariel gets a bit scared of him, he starts getting angry with her. Then a bit of verbal placating takes place etc, and then the fun begins *evil grin*

More concepts on the way.

-scribble-
AB

Well, time for another photo-walk, but without the walk. This time, it briefly features our neighbours’ dog; Oscar.

Haruhi is up bright and early, and is in her usual mood…

Oscar is confused…
…As our minigod ninjas it over to ‘tother side of the room…
And shines with GodNinja light!

After calming down the rather tiny deity, and letting Oscar go back home, Haruhi considers my offer of a cuppa…

Then godninja-ifies it into a beer.

After a tiny telling off (and turning my jug back into a jug) she’s a little upset ^^;

So for the sake of the universe (not to mention my morning cuppa) I gived her a flower.

Which she seems to like *dons sunglasses*….

So ends the morning ordeal. Now for some breakfast….

-munch-
AB

This is the final version of Ariel, added a little tweak here and there, but mostly the same as last time. Enjoy, while I work on Caliban.

-whoosh to the cookie jar-
AB

Just an update on Ariel (see previous post) design, since I wasnt happy on the previous dress and its remarkable resemblance to one already being used.

Story hasnt changed, just the girly.

-peow to bed-
zzzzzzzz

This is gonna be shortish and bitter, since I’m not in the greatest of moods and had a gimungous (gigantic+humungous) fight with the parental last night, so I’m not in the best of moods *sigh*.

Still gonna give you folks a song and a piccy though. The following piccy is thanks to Suki, who found loads of reference material for me. Needless to say, she’s earned many cookies, and a big hug if I ever go to Cape Town ^^;

This is Ariel (well the concept for her anyway) the main protagonist for a 24 – 32 page doujin I may actually finish. It’s the really raw inking here so dont shout at me >.<

So the story is: it’s a steampunk/victorian era, Ariel is the daughter of a big rich aristocrat, and has been sent to her home in the mountains for a recovery period and to deal with a horrific case of mental shock. She was kidnapped y’see.
Anyway, she sits at this fountain which has carvings of Shakespeare’s Tempest, and starts to cry. This happens two or three more times before she breaks down in front of the maid and produces a mask from her handbag/handwarmer thing. She then recants the tale of her kidnapping and slaughter of her family, the plot to sell her to a rich rival with a taste for sadism, and her incarceration on a train.

She hears a voice, and begins conversing with it, and names him Caliban, from a book that her captors have given her to amuse herself. After two days travel, Caliban emerges from the shadows, and begins to converse more openly. She loves him for his kindness, but cant see his face because of this mask, and most of his body is covered in a blanket/cloak that was piled into a corner. She wakes up on the third day to find her manacles broken clean off, and Caliban holding the door to the next carriage open.

The captors are making final preparations for payment and delivery of Ariel, when Caliban walks in, gets shot a few times, and starts to laugh. From under his rags, spider-like appendages with blades and barbed wire emerge, and there is a mass slaughter, which Ariel is forced to watch. It all has a distinct similarity to how her family was killed. After, and still covered in gore, Caliban confesses that he wants Ariel to himself, and will make her immortal, but she has to eat the flesh of those slain. Obviously she refuses and runs through the train, with Caliban following and tearing up the cars. She suddenly finds herself back in the front car (where folks were killed) and a brief conversation follows. Caliban removes half of his mask, and his face is Ariel’s, and smiles. Ariel passes out, and wakes up being put into a ambulance.

After maid hears all this, she reports to the doctor of what she has heard. Ariel screams, and jumps to the side of the fountain. The wheelchair she was being carried around in has barbed wire coming from the ground and ensaring the wheels, and both halves of Calibans mask are on the seat.

-End-

Here’s the rather scrumptious Miku singing Levan Polka. I think.