FantasiaKitty

I was tagged (many moons ago) by ScarletteGoddess to do this. At long last, here it is, eight facts about one of my OCs!

She didn't pick a character for me, so I chose Nebula Lowe of The Xeadian Chronicles (fittingly enough, she happens to be the priemma [wife] of Helioscha Lowe, the character Scarlet wrote her eight facts about).

Here we goooo!

1. Nebula is her Anglo [English] name. She is a Dravei by birth and the Dravei people are Russik [Russian], so her birth name was Nebezdah. She has always preferred her birth name and will still answer to it; she even practices signing both names.
2. She is an orphan. Both of her parents were killed in the war when she was ten years old. She has no siblings.
   
3. She has lived in all three colonies on Xaviya. She was born in the Firesbane territory (technically, it wasn't a colony yet since she was born before the war), then taken to live in the Doscevv colony when her parents died, and then studied law in the Hawvuzerde colony, where she later married and now lives with her family.
4. Though born a peasant girl in the Banes, she is royalty in both the Doscevvs and the Hawvs. After the death of her parents, she was adopted by Dossen Frahnzatobi along with two other orphaned Firesbane kittens -- Robyn (born Roziynah) of the Fabrux clan and Quivvannee of the Cleahz clan -- which made the three of them the Skivack princesses. In the Hawvs, she ended up marrying Conoshen Helioscha Lowe, a son of Hawvvum Ginevra -- making him a prince and Nebula a princess by marriage.
5. She is a polyglot, able to speak at least five languages. Russik is her mother tongue, and she learned Anglo and Giman [German] out of necessity as she moved around the colonies. She picked up Franquois [French] and Castilo [Spanish] from her adopted sisters and is likely able to understand a few others. She can also read Braille, which she learned because of her blind ajevvo [husband] -- but to his mild annoyance, she also knows sign language and has taught some of it to their daughter so they can communicate without him knowing.
   
6. Her first boyfriend turned out to be gay. They dated for not quite a year and never got past first base in all that time.
7. She met Helioscha (or Aja) because they were both representatives at inter-colony meetings. Every time they had a break, Aja would slowly scoot closer to her until she noticed and started scooting away from him. They have now been happily married for 15 years.
8. Nebula and Aja both have such strong personalities that when Nebula announced she was pregnant with Aja's child, the first thing Aja's brother Micalth said was "Oh no."
   

I have no one to tag since there's no one around anymore. If you're one of my watchers and want to do this for one of your OCs, feel free. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

So I got in the mood for a bit of spring cleaning (in January). My gallery, I realized, contains a lot of stuff I'm not incredibly proud of anymore, that I don't want representing me to visitors who maybe just want to take a quick glance through my work. As the quality of my work has improved, the quantity has dropped, meaning that the pieces I ACTUALLY want representing me are just the tip of the iceberg.

But still, I didn't want to get rid of the old stuff, because as embarrassing as it is, I'm fond of the memories it brings back and the stories behind it. I still want it to be available to those who want to see it (inexplicably enough, some old pieces still get the odd favorite every now and then).

So what I've done is just a bit of clean-up! After noticing that I can remove deviations from the main "featured" page of my gallery without actually REMOVING them, I did just that for all but a few of my most current and/or well-done pieces. At a glance, the gallery now looks much more appealing, but all the old stuff is still there in the corresponding gallery folders!

Pretentious? Maybe. But I'm much more comfortable with random people landing here now.

And now you know what Fantasia does at 1:00 in the morning during semester breaks. I lead a wild life, folks.

*Pokes deviantART account with a stick*

So, um . . . been a while, hasn't it?

I just logged on to dA this evening after an entire semester's worth of neglecting this poor account. After wading through 250+ messages, I can now announce my joyous return to the site!

As usual, I didn't mean to abandon this place, but college happened, as it is wont to do. I didn't think this semester was particularly crazy, but, as is demonstrated by my absence, apparently it was. I'm now half done with my college education, which is terrifying. I don't want to talk about that and you probably don't want to hear about it, so let's move on!

So, I really want to get back into doing the art thing this summer. It's been a long time, man, and there is much art to be arted. I've only submitted three deviations in 2015 so far, and it's plainly embarrassing that there's still stuff from two Christmases ago on the first page of my gallery. This site really isn't a main priority for me anymore, but still, I don't intend to leave. Because art.

Geez, it's hot in here. My house fails at insulation -- it's uncomfortably cold in the winter and uncomfortably hot in the summer. I was poking around in the attic last week and was physically unable to stay up there for more than 15 minutes or so. I swear there's about a five-degree temperature increase with each stair on the way up. We've lost many a decorative candle to that heat.

My latest real-world obsession is old things. I've done a lot of handling of old books as part of my part-time job these past few months, and it's sparked my interest. Old books, old buildings, old historical artifacts. They come with a sense of being weathered and worn and well-used; it's kind of humbling to get up close and personal with them.

The oldest book I've handled was from the 1830s. In the grand scheme of things, that's really pretty recent, but then you stop to think that that book is coming up on being 200 years old. It predates the American Civil War by 30 years. It's older than the state where I grew up. Edgar Allan Poe was still alive.

Books from before the 1800s are pretty rare. So, in that regard, a book from the 1830s is kind of impressive. But then I remember that I've been to a medieval city dating back to the 900s. The age of the book pales in comparison. Old buildings are generally older than old books, because buildings are meant to last longer. Oldness is relative.

All this newfound interest is making me really want to visit Europe again, because Europe is where a lot of old things are. The kind of old that you can't really find here across the pond. Books from the 1800s are nice and everything, but by and large, America is simply too young to be old.

. . . But maybe all this musing about oldness is just my way of coping with having turned 20. (What?!)

And now I should wrap this up before I can start off on another babbling tangent. In conclusion, I'm still alive, I'm glad to be back, and hopefully you'll be seeing more from me soon!

The Essentials

Name: Not gonna be that easy. It's Fantasia to you.
Nickname: Tazie, Taz, Fant, Kiwi
Location: Up north
Age: 19
Height: 5'4"
Zodiac sign: Pisces
Any pets: In the past I've had many many fish, a parakeet, and two hermit crabs. No pets at the current moment, though, unless you count all the bugs that get in my house.
Favourite thing about yourself: I'm good at writing! I'm also pretty intelligent, or so I like to think.
Worst habit: Probably procrastination. (And spontaneous alliteration.)
Fun fact: The candy flavor "blue raspberry" was invented to circumvent the issue of distinguishing between different red flavors like watermelon, strawberry, and cherry. Blue raspberries don't actually exist, but the flavor is blue because the red dye previously used in raspberry flavorings was deemed a possible carcinogen and said to cause cancer.
. . . Oh, you meant a fun fact about me? Well, I love useless trivia. There you go.

Identity, Sexuality & Personality

Gender identity: Female
Sexual preference: Asexual
Romantic preference: I dunno lol
"Kinsey Scale" score: X. Yes, it's a real Kinsey score. Look it up.
Relationship status: Single and happy that way, thank you muchly.
Myers/Briggs type: INFJ
Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw! So at college, my dorm community has four halls and every year they have themed competitions against each other. This past year one of the competitions was Harry Potter-themed and each hall was a Hogwarts house, and my hall was Ravenclaw and it made me so happy.

Routine

"Early Bird" or "Night Owl": Night owl. I produce some of my best work in the late hours of the night.
Bath or shower: Shower. Ain't nobody got time for taking baths (and I procrastinate my showers way too much as it is).
First thought in the morning: Uuuuuugggggghhhhhhh, who decided to make this class only available at 8 am? Why must I suffer for my education?
Last thought before falling asleep at night: Let's reenact a mental movie of that scene I just wrote in my story!

School/Work

Do you work or are you a student: I'm in college studying computer engineering.
What do you do good: Academic: math, science, English, and wiring circuits. Non-academic: creative writing, making puns, public speaking, designing characters, and worrying about everything. Oh, and grammar. _{That's "what do you do well".}
Where do you see yourself in 5 years: This question gives me anxiety. Hopefully with some kind of techy job and having published several creative writings.

Habits (Do you…?)

Drink: Nope
Smoke: Nope
Do Drugs: Nope (am I doing this whole college thing right?)
Exercise: AHAHAHAHAHAhahahaha . . . In my defense, my dorm sits at the top of this huge hill that you have to climb several times each day. (The joke is that all the engineers live there because it's the only exercise they get.) I also do quite a bit of outdoorsy stuff during the summer, so there's that.
Have a go-to comfort food: Pizza.
Have a nervous habit: I'm one of those leg-shakers. Also, I always fiddle with random objects around me. I usually have a hard time sitting still.

What is your favorite…?

Physical quality (in yourself): I have really dark eyes and I've always liked that. Also, my hair is naturally straight and is the envy of many a friend.
In Others: Eyes. They're pretty.
Mental/emotional quality (in yourself): I'm pretty smart and go to a pretty-smart-person school. I also like to think I'm decently funny/clever/witty and I consider it a huge personal success when I manage to make someone laugh.
Food: Again, pizza. I once ate pizza for four meals in a row. True story.
Drink: Chocolate milk all the way!
Animal: Domestic: cats. Wild: tigers. (So basically still cats.)
Artist/Band/Group: Because I'm obviously such a hipster, I don't pay much attention to popular artists. Instead, I'm pretty big on Pentatonix and ThePianoGuys.
Author/Poet: John Green is my inspiration (and I was a fan BEFORE the whole The Fault in Our Stars craze, so shut up). Jack London is a long-standing favorite of mine, and I'm way more obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe than any rational human should be.
TV Show: Just about anything on the Game Show Network. Blame my roommate; she got me hooked.
Actor/Actress: At the moment, Tom Hiddleston. Eheheheheheh.
Blogger: I . . . don't have a blog and don't follow blogs. *Is shamed* I can appreciate Tumblr as an art form, though.

It's been a while, hasn't it? Time to talk about my life as if someone cares!

So, my first year of college is done. I know, I can't believe it either. I was reading back through my old journals the other day and found the ones where I was freaking out over being a high school senior. Yep, those were the days.

Of course, as it always is, July is travel month for me. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere exotic this year. In fact, I'll actually be in the USA for the Fourth of July for the first time in three years -- what a concept! I'll be spending the holiday in Boston. The firework show there is supposed to be pretty legendary, and I'm excited.
_{I feel so patriotic all of a sudden. It's making me kind of uncomfortable.}
And, as usual, I'll be going to the cabin out west as well. That's happening from July 20-26.

What else to talk about? Well, I'm learning Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, the language of Beowulf. Not that it's relevant or useful or anything, but I love languages, so why not? Se cyning þa cwene lufað. That means "The king loves the queen." You are free to be impressed.

I don't know how many here visit my CATS fansite, Fantasia's Corner of the Junkyard, but I'm planning a few things that will make it take a turn for the awesome. All the good CATS fansites are disappearing, so I'm hoping to make mine good enough to replace them!

Well, that's enough of my rambling for now. I'm hoping to compensate for not posting much art by posting more this summer, but we'll wait and see how that turns out. Peace!