beedok

OiRanze | Optimism

It had been a little over a week since Ranze’s trip to see Asa, and Tousui had sent word he was working out a new excuse to smuggle her out of Yoshiwara. He’d also managed to raise a bit of money from some friends, and was hoping to gather a bit more over the coming months.

All in all, it left Ranze with hope, and so, she was able to focus on her prayers to Inari with this visit to the local shrine. The silence in response to her request of help for Ichi was starting to ...

OiRanze | Promises

A couple days later, Ranze received a letter from Muraji, confirming he’d departed for Nagasaki, and would be taking his fleet south from there, expecting to spend 3 months on the trip. She burned the letter as soon as she’d read it, and got some satisfaction from that.

The hard time limit to find an escape was set. Unfortunately, she was also coming to realise her odds of getting her contract purchases were growing rather slim. She’d had a customer in the days between...

OiRanze | Departure

The storm crept into the realm of dreams, Ranze finding herself in a chaotic howling wind as she tried to chase after Asa. Running in a straight line proved impossible against the wind, Ranze being spun about and disoriented, unable to find Asa, despite the other woman staying perfectly still. A particularly large gust lifted Ranze from her feet, dragging her away.

“Asa!” Ranmaru gasped, jolting upright in his futon.

Confusion set in, as last night’s me...

OiRanze | Loosen

Katagami. That was the man’s name, as Ranmaru soon learned from the others teasing him over inviting an Oiran along with them. The general consensus of the guards was that they’d leave Katagami in charge of watching Ranmarum once the ‘delicate Oiran’ passed out. Ranmaru rolled his eyes as he stepped out into the pouring rain and hurried with the others down the street and to the bar.

Annoyed, Ranmaru’s first order upon arriving at the bar was to request some baijiu....

OiRanze | Diligence

Ranmaru ran through another kata in his apartment the next morning. He still hadn’t worked out what the head guard had meant about his advantage, but... he was going to figure it out. Even if his arms still ached from the bruises he’d received yesterday.

And he was going to stay a man while he tried to figure it out. Returning to being female, well, that was counterproductive to the task at hand.

It also made his skin crawl, knowing memories would feel s...

OiRanze | Prize

The day after the shrine visit had been quiet in the morning, Ranze spent much of the evening teaching Ichi to improve her calligraphy. It went well enough, Ichi being quite enthusiastic about making her writing as cute as possible. Sometimes at the cost of legibility, but that could be fixed with time.

The lesson had wrapped up, and Ranze was helping to clean ink off of Ichi’s hands when there was a knock at the apartment door.

“Yes? Come in?” Ranze re...

OiRanze | Fright

Climbing into the branches, Ranmaru still wasn’t completely certain what he was doing. He’d slept barely three hours, and had nothing to show Asa from his planning efforts from the last week and a half.

His heart demanded he take any chance he had to see her though.

From within the safety of the tree’s foliage, he peaked out into the yard. At first, he saw no one, and wondered what to do next. Trying to sneak into the house seemed dangerous. Not that s...

OiRanze | Company

Over the course of the next week, Ranze had tried to play up the flirtation and flattery with the couple of clients she had. Neither of the men seemed overly swayed, though Ranze had expected it to take more than one visit to sway anyone. If either one paid another visit within less than a month, then she might have a sign that the customer was an opportunity. Unfortunately, the price to visit her was enough that customers didn’t return with a high enough frequency for her current peace of ...

OiRanze | Life

Ranmaru groaned as the call of a rooster split through his head. Dragging himself into a seated position, he silently cursed himself for drinking quite so much the night before. Though, in his defense, he argued to himself, it wasn’t like he could drink saké, so he needed to stick to shouchuu, despite its much greater kick. That didn’t help stop his head from complaining though.

Blinking awake, the movement near the foot of his futon drew his attention.

...

OiRanze | Little Sister

Edo was a chaotic city. That everyone knew. The culture was in flux, new arrivals streaming in from across Japan, bringing customs, accents, and more with them.

What fewer realised was that said ‘more’ included yokai from across the nation, drawn in by that same chaos. Kitsune were especially drawn in, in part by that same gender imbalance that so drove the business of Yoshiwara, as it meant a Kitsune in the form of a human woman could easily swindle or torment a samurai ...

OiRanze | Language

It hadn’t taken long to find a courier post to drop off the letters. Yoshiwara sat at the heart of the city, and the official start to the five highways of the Gokaido system was all but on it’s doorstep.

Finding a shop that sold bokuto took a bit more effort, but a city awash with samurai meant it wasn’t too hard to ask for help.

The actual tasks out of the way, Ranmaru headed back to the wealthy neighbourhoods to the south of the city. He wasn’t o...

OiRanze | Longing

Arriving back at the ageya, Ranmaru found himself receiving a glare from the current accountant girl on duty.

“We expected you back hours ago,” the girl hissed.

“I bumped into a customer. He paid,” Ranmaru replied, producing the share he owed the house.

“Oiran are not to do house calls,” the cold voice of the Yarite said from behind Ranmaru. “They are above that.”

Ranmaru turned slowly, keeping his eyes lowere...

OiRanze | Her

Ranmaru followed Tousui through the Yamanote streets, until they arrived at a large house, the property walls of which sectioned off an entire block. As an extra bit of wealth display, the gate to the home was made of iron, with a guard standing to one side.

Tousui’s hand shot out, stopping Ranmaru while they were still a few metres from the entrance.

“I just remembered something that might be important,” Tousui said, his voice a hushed whisper as he ma...

OiRanze | Loneliness

April of 1620, Genna 6

Ranmaru maintained his best fake smile as Akado Tousui recited his so-called poetry. The tall and lanky young samurai had little grasp of effective metaphors, and wrote about the same subject matter every time: the various men he’d met and fallen for. It wasn’t that Ranmaru had anything against that subject, but Akado fell back on the same metaphors for masculine beauty in nearly every poem, and made sure to visit Ranmaru with at least an hour's wor...

OiRanze| Anxiety

Autumn bled into winter, with only a trickle of letters to tell anyone about the preparations being made.

-b-

Winter had brought news of a negotiated peace. One that sounded like a defeat, despite her father’s best attempt to sound optimistic. Yet... many of the men were staying. Ranze couldn’t understand it.

It seemed one defeat was not considered enough to call the campaign. Yoshikiba, whose family had chosen to remain behind, had calle...

Art Trade

A little art trade with Ylvarna.

Oiran | Tranquility

August of 1613/Keichi 18:

Even northern Honshu felt the heat of summer, and heard the singing of the cicadas that came with it. Yet, those walking near the Hanamoto home would have, instead, heard the clacking of bokuto most afternoons. The large trees helped keep the open area near that home cool, even in the August afternoon, and so was the favourite sparring location for Ranmaru, Kikuhiko, and Sakai Yoshikiba.

At this particular moment, Ranmaru was giving...

OiRanze: Asa

Important character who hasn’t shown up yet in the narrative. Tried to mix Ming and Tibetan hairstyles.

OiRan| Childhood 3

And then it was April. The piles of winter snow had melted, the risk of new snows seemed gone, and proper travel opened up again. The open roads meant that a priest experienced in chasing yokai was on his way. That had been the news Ranmaru’s parents brought when they’d shown up to take the boy back home with them.

Ranmaru was happy to see them again, but the idea of leaving felt at least a little painful to the young boy, because returning home would mean breaking the tr...

OiRan| Childhood 2:

They’d decided on Ranmaru. It let Ranze still use the orchid kanji in her name, which her mother seemed to think was very important in preventing her from losing touch with her femininity over the winter. Despite the new clothing, which Ranze—no, Ranmaru, found a bit boring, and the new haircut, the youth felt there was little risk of forgetting about her girlhood. The bigger problem was the way her mother kept crying at random, and telling the temporary boy how brave she was to go throug...

OiRan| Childhood 1:

November of 1607/Keichi 12:

The Dewa Province was known for its snow, and young Mei Ranze had always enjoyed waiting and watching for the first snowfall of the year. Or at least every year since she’d understood to wait for it, which meant it was a good seven years of tradition now. She had always thought that it was beautiful, falling slowly to the ground, melting when it got there.

This year was no different, as she sat on the engawa. She’d been watchin...

Sketchbook Page

An OC. Some animal studies. A little fanart. But, enough original content I feel alright posting it here rather than on discord.

Sketchbook Page

Just some original art for a change. So I’m posting it here.

Eye Sketching

I need to try putting more live into the eyes I draw. And maybe back away from same-face syndrome more. So... practice time!

(I swear, I will write something in the near future, just in an art mood lately.)

Sketchbook Page

Just some original character doodling.

Cooking Time

I was bored, doodled up some of the more culinary characters from my one comic idea posing like Ajikko boys.

1 Hour of Hand Studies

Some went better than others.

Sketchbook Drawings

Mostly original characters, and then Ai from Detective Conan, because she was already on the page.

Chapter 2: An Impossible Story

The rain was rapping gently against the window as Tessa tried to stay awake. This paper on gender in Sumerian mythology wasn’t going to write itself, and she hadn’t even gotten to Inanna.

Suddenly the door swung open, revealing a rather excited Garcelle.

“Cheri! We’ve got un new projet! I... right, but I can not actually tell you about it. It’s for the US Army—or maybe Navy? Air... whatever, one of them. So it is top secret, but I am allowed to t...

Expressions Challenge

Some of my Magical Girl OCs for an expressions challenge. Some worked better than others.