First off HI, HULLO. I apologize for being gone for...damn, 3 years! I'll get to all of that in a bit.

First I saw the announcement on Twitter, I'm both saddened and angry with what happened to 'Neer. His death was unjustified. That hospital killed him. He should still be here! All they cared about was emptying his bank account! >:(
But...he's not here now... At the very least, he's no longer in pain. Rest easy Dragoneer. </3 My fullest sympathies to his family and friends.

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Again, I apologize for being gone for such a span of time! I didn't take my mom's death very well for a while. For a good year my diet went to shit, and while I didn't gain a whole lot of weight, my guts are messed up. I'm trying to get myself to cook more (so far I'm pretty good at omelettes, and I enjoy a veggie omelette! God I love sauteed mushrooms and spinach), and I'm trying to up my veggie intake.

Also, I'm 40 now! Crazy... I'm struggling with this fact that I'm middle-aged. Pretty sure I'm having a mid-life crisis and I'm unsure how to deal with it. I am still drawing (I'll give out a list of places you can find me, in case this place shuts down, which I hope it doesn't). Also hanging out with my new geeky friends, even though the actual group itself broke apart not long ago (absolutely bums me out).
Speaking of geeky friends, I'm finally playing DnD! I used to think this game was for basement-dwelling nerds with no life and at the time I didn't identify as a geek or nerd. But after a while watching ppl on Twitch play it, I became really interested. Now I'm playing a Brass Dragonborn bard! He's an absolute himbo, and quite possibly an inept musician, lmao.
But I can't wait to play more campaigns! I've developed an addiction to creating more characters, and I'm turning into a dice goblin. XD

So...I'm still dealing with dysphoria/dysmorphia. I've been looking deep into myself and trying to set free things I've been repressing. I no longer identify as cisgender. I know on my DA journal I wrote I was identifying as Bigender, but now I identify as Genderfluid (as well as Demisexual). I use all pronouns, but mostly she/her/they/them. I don't mind he/him, but I mostly like masculine terms, like "king," "dude," "guy," "brother," etc...
I honestly feel better doing this. I feel...I dunno, less chained down? Less restricted maybe. I certainly feel a bit less disgusted with myself. But I still have a lot of work to do.

I mentioned I'm still drawing, and I am (even slowly learning how to do digital!). I don't do as much as I've been distracted by games, lol. My brain is absolutely rotten from Fallout 4 and New Vegas (and some Oblivion). xD Because of some Twitter friends, I've been developing A LOT of OCs! I'm trying to get myself to practice on human drawing as I LOVE my Fallout OCs so much. Literally my FO4 OC is my comfort character. <3
I haven't made a new character since Star, I've been wanting to make more characters!

I suppose I should make a list of places to find me, where I'm more active:
1. https://twitter.com/Mariah_Mortimer (I'm the most active here)
2. https://bsky.app/profile/starseeker.....on.bsky.social (mostly active here too. Both this and Twitter are the places where you'll find my art)
3. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/starseekerdragon (not quite as active, but I check it on occasion)

While I still have a DA account, I took my stuff down. I don't know if AI has been trained on traditional art yet, but it doesn't matter to me. Fuck AI.
I do plan to come back here. I mean I am here, I do go through and clear out my inbox from time to time. And check in with the journals, see who's still around, see what everyone's been up to.