[Gelbsend, the town west of Grunvale. The town is holding a fair, and the Klug, Rose, and Wyler families have arrived, the latter in two separate vehicles; Dolly, Gregory, and Wendy ride together in a Chevy, and Roz, Maddie and Nicole in a Mitsubishi]
Nicole: “Thanks for the ride, Roz. And Maddie.”
Roz: “Any time, little sis.” [waves. Nicole waves back as she runs off. As Roz parks the car]
Maddie: “What’d we say about calling her that? She’s not little anymore, she’s bigger than us. She’s our younger sister.”
Roz: “I still remember her as little. No matter how big she gets, I’ll still see her as my little sister.” [beat] “Even if she’s big now. My big, little sister. Who sucks at communicating with others, but is amazing at baseball, and found herself a boyfriend. Two of ’em!” [hits a pothole, causing the car to jolt]
Roz, Maddie: “Oof!”
Maddie: “How do monoamorous folks manage? It’s a boring way to live, only loving one. Nobody has just one computer or one notebook their entire lives, or even just one at one time. Why should it be expected to have only one romantic partner?”
Roz: “I know, right? So what if we want two boyfriends? Or more! Nicole, she’s turning out right.” [beat] “Just a question, who do you think is the better of her boyfriends?”
Maddie: “Murray, no contest. He’s a total beta dork, it’s charming. Plus he’s got four years of knowing her on Holt. And he’s not gonna be passive-aggressive towards me for ‘cheating on his brother’, as Holt’d put it.”
Roz: “Murray has a sister, not a brother.”
Maddie: “‘scuse me, cheating on his sibling.”
Roz: “And you know, Kate is pretty rude towards Nicole and Holt.”
Maddie: “Only ’cause she’s jealous. And it isn’t toward me. Oh, and Murray’s a perameline. You know how much Nicky loves Ausnailian culture.” [beat] “I’m gonna guess you think Holt’s the better boyfriend.”
Roz: “It’s only been just over half a year, but… yeah. The fact he’s a sciurine, and Jewish, and autistic, and a homely-looking dork, all things Nicole is. He’s practically made for her. Oh, and they also like 1980s music. The bad and cheesy kind. What was the song they danced to together again, at the Sadie Hawkins dance?”
Maddie: “I don’t know, something by that leporine, the albino, what’s his name.”
[Wendy walks up, slapping the hood of the Mitsubishi to get the twins’ attention]
Wendy: “‘Treacherous Love’ by Edgar Winter. From Mission Earth.”
Roz: “Mission Earth?! Like L. Ron Hubbard?!”
Wendy: “Yyyyyep.”
Maddie: “Nicole and Holt danced to a Scientology song? That’s… something. How’d he even find out about the song?”
Wendy: “My friend Gilda’s grandpa was into sci-fi stuff. Even if it came from controversial creators. He must’ve bought the LP back in the day. And Holt wanted a song to dance to, I led him to Gilda, and… well, he found the song. Gilda even tried to tell him the song’s about drug addiction and not romance, but… he didn’t listen. He’s not a good listener.”
Dolly: [standing about thirty feet away with Gregory] “Wendy, come on! The cotton candy’s not gonna easily dissolve itself! Or confuse procyonines with its existence just sitting there!”
Wendy: “Coming, Dolly!” [to the twins] “Have fun at the fair, you two.” [goes to catch up with Dolly and Gregory]
Roz: [to Maddie] “You practice your throws for the five-in-a-row game?”
[Meanwhile, elsewhere in the parking lot]
Holt: “You know why they call this place Gelbsend?”
Murray: “No, never really thought of it.”
Holt: “Because it’s where the sun appears to set for Grunvale. ‘Gelb’ is the Gerbilman word for ‘yellow’. So it’s basically yellow’s, yellow being the sun, ‘Yellow’s End’. Many of the towns in and around Albaneigh are Gerbilman-founded. Including all of The Colors. Grunvale, Gelbsend, Rottsgarden, Blaufluss, Lilafeld, and Swartcaverns.”
Murray: “You know, I never understood, what makes those towns ‘the Colors’?”
Holt: “Their names. Their names begin with Gerbilman color names. Well, all except the unfortunate Eaglicization victim of ‘Swartcaverns’, which would still be ‘Schwarzkavern’ if not for the Eaglish-speakers taking over this country.”
Murray: “Wow, you… really know a lot about local history.”
Holt: “Hey, it’s Gerbilman history. My ancestry’s history.”
[Nicole sneaks up and ruffles Holt’s hair]
Nicole: “And you’re very knowledgeable in it!”
Holt: “Whoop!”
Nicole: “Fitting that your last name means ‘smart’!” [Holt blushes. Nicole then turns to Murray] “Oh, and hello, my precious Aussie baby!” [pokes Murray’s nose] “Boop!” [laughs. Murray smiles] “Glad you both could make it.”
Murray: “But of course!”
Holt: “You’re awesome to hang around with, Nicole.” [kisses Nicole’s left cheek while Murray kisses her right. Nicole lets out a flattered squeal] “Now, first things first, I’d like to go on the Ferris wheel. Not just ride it, like, actually go on top of it, climb to the top. I am a sciurine, after all.”
Nicole: “Whoa, this place has a Ferris wheel?”
Holt: “Uh, yeah, it’s right there.” [points to it]
Nicole: “Wow, that’s huge! A hundred feet at least!” [puts her arms around Holt and Murray] “Good suggestion, Holt! We’re climbing onto the Ferris wheel! Murray, how good are you at climbing? You know the view’ll be more special than if we just rode!”
Murray: “Uh, kind of good? It’s not a natural gift for me like it is for you two. My gift’s digging.”
Nicole: “Kind of good, that’s good enough for me! Let’s go!”
[the three walk onto the main fairgrounds]
Murray: “I forgot to also mention this also seems dangerous.”
Nicole: “Don’t worry, I’ll open the top car for in case the wheel starts moving. And if it moves on our way up, just take a vertical bar and we’ll figure it out from there.”
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Which happens to also be National Ferris Wheel Day. So why not combine the two into one artwork and ficlet? A romantic, polyamorous relationship, getting ready to get on a Ferris wheel. And hey, it shows commitment to my resolution to draw at least one artwork for National [whatever] Day, that began with drawing and writing for National Spaghetti Day.
Onto everything here!
One of the movies on my watchlist, is Steven Spielberg’s most recent film, The Fabelmans. I haven’t seen the entire film at the time of me writing this, but I did watch the scene with Sammy meeting the legendary film director John Ford (the latter played by David Lynch, himself a legendary director), who gives him advice about horizon lines, and where to place them in a shot. Namely, that placing them at the top and bottom is ‘interesting’, and placing them in the middle looks ‘boring as shit’.
Anyways, the scene reminded me that I need more interesting-looking shots in my own work. Not specifically images with horizons at the top or bottom, but also experiments with higher than one-point perspective. Like with panel II here, which was drawn in three-point perspective. I discovered a tool in ASP that allows for the user to set perspective lines, and even fix said lines to the perspective. And used said tool to figure out how to draw Nicurrolt. What you see above was the result. I’m glad I found out the tool exists; I’ve been using it quite a bit since, and have more artwork in the pipeline that involved the use of the tool.
As for the ficlet… there’s not much to say, other than, no, I didn’t forget about Roz and Maddie, and this should be proof of it. Also, this is the first ficlet I’ve written where all five Wyler sisters have a speaking role. Good to finally have one out of the way!
And… that’s all for this post. Take care, stay safe, get vaccinated, reject crypto, happy birthday Jen my coworker on the off chance you’re reading this, and have a good one.
Twitter (Main): https://twitter.com/StormyAdlerPoG
Twitter (Art): https://twitter.com/TheOfficialOTOG
Instagram: www.instagram.com/phoenix_of_g…
Newgrounds: https://phoenixofgrunvale.newgrounds.com/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCXj2N…
Discord: Contact me by my tag (Stormy Adler, P.o.G.#1752) for an invite to my server.
Grunvale/OTOG is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you credit me as the creator of the series.
Both panels of this artwork were made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
The Gallery of Stormy Adler 