iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 1h

Moon Mice live in a vast high-tech complex beneath the lunar surface. They eat cultured cheese which they grow in nutrient tanks; it's an unnatural green color and causes them to mutate in a wide variety of ways. They're well aware of the "moon made of cheese" meme and decided to lean into it.

A few black and white sketches of a four-armed anthro female mouse in various poses.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 19h

Needing extra sleeves or pants legs is an obvious need for the Ringtailor machines in Elseways to fill, but what's less obvious is how many people use them to get unneeded parts removed. Even snakes can be briefcase-toting professionals with suits to match.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 21h

I don’t know who this will be helpful for, but drawing a Greek lowercase xi (ξ) is easy if you think of it as “ks” rearranged a bit.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 29/09/2026

Full-body view of Cyanna at work, retrieving a book from one of the shelves of the Elseways Central Library. They're versed in many languages and know a little bit about a whole lot of subjects, which makes them a very good librarian (on top of the fact that they live in the library's upstairs).

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 28/09/2026

I'm not sure who or what this is just yet, but this half-anthro-blue-jay half-feathery-serpent creature has been poking around my imagination looking for a place to live. I think they're a keeper if I can just figure out more about them.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 27/09/2026

I thought I'd give that "9 games" thing a try, and here's how that turned out.

1. Final Fantasy II
2. Megaman 2
3. The Fool’s Errand
4. Undertale
5. La Mulana
6. Minecraft
7. Ultima IV
8. Sim City 2000
9. Secret of Mana

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 27/09/2026

Derusting some pixel art skills with a monochrome Cheq López (drawn in Procreate after re-importing a very useful set of pixel brushes that I'll link in a reply). It's a little rough, but as a test to see if I still remember my workflow for this, it works fine.

A black-and-white pixel drawing of an anthro rabbit who takes the "harlequin" pattern to an extreme, checkerboarding not just his face but his ears and suit-jacket.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 23/09/2026

Sketches of an odd creature who started off as a late-night insomnia doodle about 20 hours ago and who's taken on a life of his own. I still don't quite know who he is, but I've wanted to get better at a looser more stylized kind of art, so I think he's a good subject for that.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 23/09/2026

The order of Fa Fadú, named for the goddess they follow, is a religious group who believe hospitality is the source of all good things; they have small cozy churches all around Elseways and make their secret-recipe sweet-potato biscuits available for anyone in need.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 20/09/2026

Maria-Helena confronts the monster that used to be her brother, transformed by unknown powers into a beast who screams unintelligible nonsense. She's the city's last bastion of sanity, fighting to survive, and she's going to need help.

On the left, Maria-Helena, a chimera-woman, making a pleading gesture while she tries to address the creature on the right, who is a large and much more monstrous (but still anthropomorphic) chimera, screaming some kind of unintelligible "word" back at her.

What is he even saying, anyway?

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 18/09/2026

I decided Semi needed a redesign to fit better into the story and setting that The Last Word is moving toward; they're still an ethereal spirit inhabiting a temporary physical body, but now that body doesn't look quite as generic.

A centauroid creature wearing loose clothing and carrying a staff topped by mysterious symbols. Drawn in black and white, with hatching-style shading; this is the art style The Last Word will consistently use.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 17/09/2026

The fourth and last member of the Last Word crew, Æðel is a 400-year-old ghost bound magically to a suit of armor. He'd been sealed away for centuries, so his language and outlook are both long out of date, but some principles never die and Æðel is firmly on the side of good (once he gets there).

A hollow suit of armor with a hovering flaming stone in place of a head. The armor looks like it's meant to fit a dragon or some other similar large digitigrade creature with a heavy tail, and is carrying a large spiked mace in one hand.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 15/09/2026

Kind of resembles a X-Naut with a hard hat.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 15/09/2026

VI's hyper-tuned metabolism means that they eat several times as much as you'd expect and also sleep on an accelerated schedule. Good thing Maria-Helena keeps her eyes out for comfortable places to take breaks. Wanted to sketch a cute scene between these two, even if their story hasn't started.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 15/09/2026

This enigmatic dragon is one of the most interesting characters in the strip.

A large Eastern-style dragon standing upright with arms folded and a skeptical facial expression

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 14/09/2026

Vi's design isn't quite set yet, and neither is the art style of The Last Word. I'm experimenting with both here and I think they're both looking better than before. Vi is an artificial life form, grown by an alchemist to be a perfect fighter, but they escaped home in search of freedom.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 14/09/2026

This is another adventurer who'd join up with Semi and Maria-Helena, a six-armed warrior rabbit named Vi. It's not short for anything; in fact, Vi would say I'm spelling their name wrong and it's meant to be Ⅵ. Their fighting style revolves around being clever with combos and counterattacks.

Two views of a six-armed rabbit, one in a threatening pose with a sword and shield in two hands and another in a sort of meditative float.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 14/09/2026

Just a random rabbit guy seated on a low stone wall in a city park. Shaking off some rust before I get back to work in earnest on Bitkin art.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 10/09/2026

The chimera mage (whose name is Maria-Helena) meets Semi, who's a little surprised to find someone who escaped the curse that he's been sent into the world to defeat.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 09/09/2026

Some mages get to cast two spells in a turn; sometimes this is just inherent to the character.

An anthro chimera (one goat head, one lioness) in a gown holds her hands up, one with a fiery aura, the other one icy. Her snake-headed tail looks on. A Final Fantasy-styled finger and "2x Magic" command sit nearby.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 08/09/2026

The last council member is a distributed intelligence called Septim, driving a cloud of hundreds of gryphon robots that range in size from "cat" to "dust mite". They're experts at building all kinds of things, including more of themselves as needed, and love the intricacies of real-world problems.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 08/09/2026

Followup sketch from yesterday. If you ever see Janus do this, it's a good idea to get out of there fast. Not because of anything Janus himself would do, but because whatever he's reacting to is something bad enough to put the whole island on alert.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 07/09/2026

I couldn't sleep until I got this idea out in some form. This is in no way an official announcement of what's coming after Bitkin (I already have plans for that!) but it's definitely an idea that's stewing in there somewhere. Semi has a story to tell.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 07/09/2026

Janus is the island's expert on psychology, with the ability to send his consciousness into the minds and dreams of others. One of his heads is always asleep; they take turns being awake, 12 hours at a time, with both awake only in emergencies. Most of the time, Janus is calm if a little spacey.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 06/09/2026

This isn't done yet, but something I've been poking at is to fill in a solid square mile of the Elseways map. This is the neighborhood called Solstice, east of the university and north of Uptown. It's a suburb-y mostly-residential place; the pink blocks are houses and apartment buildings.

A square map labeled "Elseways: Solstice Quadrangle". The area is divided into a 4x4 square by major roads, and several of the squares have smaller roads dividing them. Points of interest as pointed out by a legend on the side are:
1. Ringoid Housewares
2. Scintilla jewelers
3. Roundies sandwiches
4. Cosmos Corps outpost
5. Shenanigans gift shop
6. Pie Shop and Bakery
7. apartments
8. Sundial Fountain in Solstice Park
9. office tower
10. music club
11. apartments
12. Foxx's Fried Chicken

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 05/09/2026

Of course I can fit on a couch (even if nobody else can use it while I'm there).

A twelve-limbed gryphon-creature sprawls on his back across a small couch or loveseat, holding a book in one hand and a mug of something on his belly. His wings are sort of awkwardly wedged into places.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 04/09/2026

The dialect quiz has me pegged pretty well as Californian, though it can't decide whether I'm from LA or San Francisco. That tracks with my upbringing; I didn't live outside the state until well into my 20s when my dialect had already stabilized.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 04/09/2026

A slightly woozy Levendish adventurer rests on the floor of the guild hall after another mishap in the field caused the emergency teleport spell to kick in, sending him somewhere safe. Teleportation is expensive (and the fee will come out of his commission), but it's still preferable to dying.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 03/09/2026

Julius is the eldest of the island council, a steady centering presence with a deep knowledge of the island's history, especially who's used its powers in the past. Ariel, meanwhile, spends their time traveling everywhere around the island and over the ocean, sharing what they learn about the world

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 01/09/2026

If the island council were a library, Desdemona would be in charge of the fiction section. A sly lover of wordplay, at home on the stage, she never seems to be the same person twice, but of course it's all just an act; Des is a deep-down believer in the power of storytelling and characterization.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 31/08/2026

August (that's me) poses with his friend/assistant Nada. August spent long enough separated from the islands and their innate magic that he took some time to readjust to the role he'd been meant to play; Nada is the form that those powers had taken while they'd been stripped from him. We're back.

A turquoise gryphon wearing a hat and a long-sleeved shirt tailored to fit his four arms. He also has four wings and four hind legs for a total of twelve limbs, and he holds up a book containing geometric figures. Above him is a floating creature made of rainbow-colored flame with arms, wings, and a body that trails off into a vague tail below the waist.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 30/08/2026

Marcellus hardly needs an introduction, but he's not this angry all the time. When the island comes under attack, he's there to lead the defense, but in peacetime he devotes himself to the physical fitness of the island's people and advocates (sometimes forcibly) for self-care.

A cardinal-red gryphon leaping through the air, aiming a large bronze spear downward. He wears armor that includes big round pauldrons bearing the symbol for Mars.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 30/08/2026

Spent some time touching up the Elseways metro map to take into account what routes make sense or not given how the terrain is. It's here in image form, but I've also made a Google Earth project thing if you want to explore it in 3D (with added landmarks and icons): earth.google.com/earth/d/1MVr...

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 29/08/2026

I keep saying "12 plus 1" as the number of the Lamppost Island gryphons, and that's not out of superstition, but because of who that "plus 1" belongs to. Mercedes, associated with Pluto, is clearly human, even if she never removes her cape or mask. This works to her advantage, though. (1/2)

A possibly-human female figure with long white hair, wearing a long white dress, matching sandals, elbow-length gloves, and a belt with the symbol for Pluto on its buckle section. She holds something in her right hand that looks like a folding cell phone.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 27/08/2026

Felt inspired to do another quick sketch and I liked how this one came out enough to post. This could easily be Semi, hero of The Last Word.

A sketchy centauroid creature of no discernable gender and with very simplified features, pausing to look over one shoulder at something far off.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 27/08/2026

The Himalayan snow bunnies from Duck Tales! Wanpaku Duck Yume Bouken is what the NES/Famicom game was called. Yes, they look just as weird in-game.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 27/08/2026

Two more of the Lamppost Island crew. You'll see all of the 12 (plus one) eventually. Descriptions below; there's not enough room in this post for them both.

Left: a tall skinny gryphon with no feathers or fur, a long neck, and eerie bony wings, making her look somewhat alien. She wears a wide-brimmed hat with a Saturn symbol on it and holds up a small scalpel.
Right: a small wingless gryphon who looks roughly like a raccoon standing on her hind feet. She's holding up a bowl and has the Earth symbol on a chain around her neck.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 27/08/2026

Got some good work done on the jigsaw engine, and now you can drag and drop pieces with a nice-feeling snap into place. There's still more work to do, but it's very satisfying having this working and made entirely out of standard SVG parts.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 25/08/2026

Febra and Maya attend one of Jun's impromptu science lectures. It's easy for him to get in this mode; he's endlessly curious and loves to share what he knows and how he learned it. Febra always finds it a little tiring, but Maya knows everyone finds profound truth their own way. Sketchy-colored.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 24/08/2026

Another of the 12 (plus 1) Lamppost Island gryphons, Maya is a deep thinker who loves to read books on philosophy. She often comes across as ethereal and otherworldly, but it's on purpose; she likes to challenge people's preconceptions about truth.

A gryphon with a slender stork-like beak and long wavy hair, seated on a cushion atop a pillar and engrossed in reading a book.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 23/08/2026

Sketches of an anthro sanzuwu/yatagarasu/three-legged-sun-crow. I should be drawing stuff more often; I've been focused so much on code I was starting to feel rusty.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 22/08/2026

These aren't nearly as fun as the legacy computing symbols, but they're still part of the overall project - Unicode coverage from U+0000 to U+02FF. I don't have any fixed plans for this all, just some vague ideas, but it's still a fun thing to do on the side.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 19/08/2026

So, if I'm August, who are the other months? I've got the whole group worked out, actually (and have for quite a while; the only new thing here was taking on the mantle of August for myself). This is Febra (it's a little hard to see, but that's a Venus symbol on her pendant).

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 19/08/2026

Here's most of U+1CDxx, and this is such a silly Unicode range that I wrote a short program to read the character names (all things like "BLOCK OCTANT-14678"), parse out the numbers, and draw rectangles as appropriate. It was a nice excuse to brush up on Python, which I haven't touched in a while.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 18/08/2026

Finished up the U+1CCxx part of the Legacy Computing supplement; it's actually about 3 times as big, so there's still a long road ahead. The chess pieces could use more work, but I won't fret over them too much; here they are assembled.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 18/08/2026

The mostly-complete version of U+1CCxx, the supplemental legacy computing block. It's missing most of the chess pieces and the outlined A-J, but it's tired and I'm going to call it a knight.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 18/08/2026

I needed to make my own version of the Unicode Knight for the pixel-fonts project, but of course once I had one I realized I could use him as a canvas for all kinds of experiments. The knight's allegiance should be up to the user, after all.

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August the Dodecalope @ Ringoid Labs @ringoidlabs.com · 18/08/2026

Another thing I learned about while poking around at Sharp stuff is the existence of this game called Zeliard (also for PC-88 and translated to English for an MS-DOS release). A character-cell sidescroller has a really appealing look, but I can't help but see the hero as a sword-wielding mouse.

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