Ooooo i love this one. You know I'm gonna say the hands need work, but i love the hair and the smoke.

How, great! Agree about the hand needing work, but this very good! Hi Cantdraw!

Lol...yeah, I agree too. Hands are definitely the hardest thing about people.

I have the same problem with hands... they always seem to look like blobs with sticks

*chuckles* They always seem an object of amusement until you can draw them correctly, huh? You know...I think Caarie should look up soon. There's a fairly large smoke dragon looking at her...I'm not sure in what way but I'd prefer not to find out.

This picture is very very good Zephyr, and I have absolutely no issues with anatomy or anything in this picture except for, as everyone else has mentioned, the hand does look rather flat. Then again, I would never be able to get a hand looking even that good so I have no room to speak, lol ^_^" Also, this isn't critique, but I'm kinda confused about the lines on her face and neck and arm, since those weren't included in the other picture. The smoke dragon looks very cool too.

The lines are her tattoo on her shoulder spreading throughout her body. When Caarie comes into contact with any draconic element (usually just fire or smoke), she begins to change into Zephyr.

Ah, ok. I didn't realize that was part of her character. But...if that were the case, wouldn't the lines show up near the dragon spirit in the other pic?

OH DUDE! I just thought of something totally cool for a story! What if Carrie didn't know she were actually a dragon, and the whole Zephyr thing were a complete mystery to her?!

Zephyr's spirit wasn't a part of her yet. She's kinda becomes a second personality of Caaries...weird, I know. I really like that idea...maybe she could pass out when the transformation happens! And there's truely two different personalities!

And then of course you'd have to explain how she became a dragon in the first place, and then how she eventually figures out that she's the one who transforms and...all SORTS of stuff could pop up from that!

Heck yes! I need your help, methinks...

Well, ok, how about this? Carrie doesn't know about Zephyr, but what if Zephyr knows about Carrie? What does that make Zephyr when Carrie's not around. And, more importantly, does anyone know what or where Zephyr is when Carrie is in physical form. Also, how vulnerable is Zephyr in un-physical form? Also, where does Carrie go when Zephyr is in physical form? All these questions...

Whoa...dude...let's answer them one at a time here cuz I know these questions are gonna take more than a five-minute answer by themselves...Okay. Zephyr does know about Caarie, but Caarie doesn't know about Zephyr. Zephyr chose Caarie because she was virtually unknown, and not at all popular. Zephyr wanted a low profile cuz dragons in this world at this time is perfectly taboo in the dragon world. Zephyr's dragon spirit was long-locked away in ashes, which were spilled (accidentally) by Caarie's foster father who (randomly enough) comes from the same exact world as Zephyr. Those ashes landed on a single fireworks punk, which Caarie lit because she was celebrating the fourth of July in city park (illegal) and she's a bit of a pyromaniac. The ashes, mingled with the "chosen" tattoo on Caarie's arm, stirred Zephyr's spirit. Caarie woke up hours later laying on picnic bench. Her foster father runs up to her minutes later, freaked out because he had no clue where she had been this entire time...and from now on, any time Caarie has physical contact with a certain kind of smoke or a certain kind of fire, Zephyr has no choice but to be summoned.

Ok, so that explains how Zephyr bonded with Carrie. Now, what's the difference between their worlds, and how do they connect?

The worlds are virually the same look wise, but not at all physics-wise. A certain explosion (for example, gas fumes and fire) that would typically happen in our world would somehow be distorted in theirs...but an extremely zany explosion (say, water and citric acid) would make perfect sense in their world. The chemistry, not to mention most of the natural laws like gravity, are completely different in these two worlds. Caarie's foster father, Zedric (another bad name), came from that world because he was experimenting with certain chemicals in that world. He was a chemisty professor (more like a funky alchemist, but I'm not that scientific) that taught young dragons how to control their elemental powers. He was performing an experiment and was using a specific kind of rare powder they hardly ever saw in their world (ahem...we call it guano) and he lit it on fire...needless to say, it exploded, and in that world, it had a crazy effect...it opened a portal between our two worlds. He was performing his experiment in his home (more like a tiny four-wheeled wagon pulled by a strange species reminiscent of horses), and he ended up teleporting to our world in a wheel-less wagon! The tires blew off in the explosion. So nowadays, he's constantly performing experiments to see if he find the right ingredients to get back to his old world. He doesn't really know it yet, but without Zephyr's help, there is basically no way he can get back cuz bat guano and fire mixed would just make...yeah. Yuck. He's known in this world as an eccentric and somewhat crazy fireworks maker...which is how he got Zephyr's spirit powder on Caarie's punk.

How did Zephyr transfer between worlds? And don't forget my earlier questions.

Zephyr came with him...purely by accident, of course. When Zedric lived in his old world, he always enjoyed exploring ancient ruins in search of new ingredients for his alchemy experiments. He was exploring a long-lost ruin one day, and stumbled upon a sealed cask of mysterious grey-blue powder. He took it back to his house-trailer to see if he could make use of this new material, but when he tried numerous experiments (most involving acid and boiling), he gave up. He labeled the powder as "useless" and set it among his other discarded materials in his trailer. Now, by the time he had transported to Caarie's world, he had completely forgotten about the powder. It's characteristics were now completely altered by the new world's laws, so now Zephyr's spirit ashes had characteristics similar to gunpowder. As Zedric started making a living making and selling fireworks, (which involved entirely new experiments since he now had no clue what did what because of the natural law shifts...he loves experiments) he one day dropped a punk into the slightly opened cask of Zephyr powder. He fished it out and gave it to Caarie, thinking that it would make no difference in the punk's performance. And don't worry...just ask them to me one at a time and I'll answer them...even if it takes me forever.

OK, I'm little confused about the Zephyr powder and the punk powder things. What are those?

LOL...when I lived down south, punks are little bamboo sticks that burn really slowly, but are able to hold a pretty good heat. You use them to light fireworks so you don't have to worry about carting around a stupid lighter all the time. The Zephyr powder (I haven't really figured all of this out yet so bear with me) is pretty much Zephyr's spirit locked in dust by an ancient power...most likely Zephyr lost control of her powers a very long time ago in the dragon world so a magician had her spirit locked away in dust and sealed.

So, how does that dust transform into a spirit that can take control of Carrie?

The dust contains Zephyr's spirit, right? I'm thinking that when Caarie was little...probably around 3ish, she stuck her hand into Zephyr's cask because she was curious. Zephyr's spirit felt Caarie's presence, and left a tattoo mark on Caarie's skin. Caarie doesn't remember this since she was so young, but she knows there's something different about the strange mark on her arm (which she just assumes is a birthmark cuz her foster father told her that and doesn't know what the heck it is, either). Now when Zephyr's spirit powder was lit with fire, and Zephyr felt Caarie's presence nearby, the magician's seal within the powder was broken, and Zephyr's spirit took ahold of Caarie.

Ah. ok. Now, back to my original questions: After Zephyr takes control of Carrie's body, where does Zephyr go when Carrie regains consciousness? Also, where does Carrie's spirit go when Zephyr is in physical form?

Since both personalities are in the same body now, the inactive personality turns dormant when the other is active. In Zephyr's case however, her dragon abilities make it possible for her to see through Caarie's eyes when Caarie is fully conscious, kinda like a dream. Caarie's spirit remains in her body, but is subdued because of the enormous amount of energy used by Zephyr's powers. I'm thinking about letting Caarie wake up during one of Zephyr's flights and being totally freaked out because 1. She's in the air for no particular reason and 2. There's someone else in her head. But during the first part of Zephyr's attachment to Caarie, the human has no idea what's going on with her. She just passes out and wakes up in a totally different place.

Ok. What is Zephyr's life-long goal, and how does it compare to Carrie's goal?

Zephyr longs to go back to her old world, but the only way she can do that is to get Caarie's full support. Caarie wants to get Zephyr out of her body, but she's afraid of going to the new world. There's also a chance that Caarie could die in the teleporting process because of the violent forces that will tear at Zephyr's spirit.

Ok. Are either of them in emminent danger?

A human body is not made to share two personalities. One of them is going to die if Zephyr doesn't leave soon. That puts both of them into some insane danger!

Oooohh...cool. You also mentioned that Zephyr had to keep a low profile in Carries world. Why exactly does she have to do that? Also, what does Zephyr do when she's in physical form?

Remember when I said that Zephyr "lost control" of her abilities way back in the day, and as a punishment, got her soul sealed in dust? She got so powerful that she was able to teleport between worlds. Along with insane power comes greed. If you have a lot, you eventually want more, and Zephyr was searching for more energy...namely, life energy, in order to sustain her massive form. She teleported to several worlds before coming to Caarie's world (waaay back in the medieval times, when dragons were supposedly everywhere, including Europe, China, South America, and North America). She killed many in her lust for power, but she was finally cut off from her power by Merlin, a man from our world, who had learned much about Zephyr's spirit and the natural laws in her world. He had teleported there himself and had learned from many teachers, one of which was Zedric's ancestor. He was the one that bound Zephyr, took her back to her world, and sealed her in dust for punishment. After that, teleportation to other worlds was strictly forbidden. Now, in the ages that passed and Zephyr was by herself in that dark, lonely place, she began to feel sorry for what she had done. She realized the pain and destruction her actions had caused, and she wanted to prove to everyone that she wasn't the same. She wanted to give back the life she had taken, even if it killed her. First of all, she wanted to return to her old world, and give all dragons the ability to teleport to other worlds and see the things she had seen, and learn the things she had learned. Her rampaging had caused her world the most grief, and she felt indebted to it the most. When she was finally connected to Caarie, she knew what she had to do. She used her life force to create new life in the garden of the city park. She made flowers appear - eerily beautiful, immortal flowers. She knew that Caarie's world had long forgotten her trespasses (besides the dragon-teleporting-taboo thing), but she felt she had to give something. She is now done with our world, but she has to return to her own...as of yet she doesn't know how. I'm also planning to say that later on, she'll become a sort of crime-fighting dragon...in a cool crime-fighting dragon sorta way.

*about 10 hours later* Okay...I just reread this and it looks really corny...

Yeah...just a little...lol. Hmmm...What if...being transformed into dust was a good thing? Not a punishment? Ok, follow with me here. Zephyr was a wild rampaging beast, searching for power and glory, just like you said. Then, eventually, she decided that her world was too small for her, and wanted to expand. She knew that there were other worlds out there, but she didn't know that dragons were supposed to stay secret on her world, due to the dragonslayers popping up on all the other worlds (including our own, because again, like you said, this was during the medeival age.) So, she started to look for ways to escape her world and teleport to another world. However, since dragons were supposed to be secret, the leaders or whatever of her world sent out two wise creatures (I'm thinking a magi and a dragon, but that's completely up in the air) to stop her. One of them is determined to kill her. The other wants to hide her, and keep her safe. After a long intense battle of a triangular hide-and-seek (you can come up with the details) the benevolent wise one (probably the magician) finds Zephyr, but the malevolent one (the dragon) is close behind, too close to hide Zephyr, and besides, she's not to keen on being hidden anyway. Thus, the benevolent one turns her into dust and traps her spirit within the dust, making it seem however that he disintregated her into dust and that she's completely dead. The dragon sees the work of the magician, and agrees that Zephyr is dead, and thus leaves, angry and hurt that he was unable to prove his determination for his world's laws. (I'm thinking the dragon is very old, and a determined law-keeper, perhaps personally insulted by Zephyr's rampaging since they were both of the same race. Also, the magician wants to help Zephyr because he's returning a favor from long ago.) Anyway, the dragon leaves, and the magician puts the dust into a jar and hides it, where Zedric finds her years later. Now, years later, she has the opportunity she always dreamed of: to take control of another world, one that doesn't even have magi or dragons to oppose her. Also, since her personality is stronger for the most part (except maybe love or forgiveness or kindness on Carries part could rival that??) she is mostly unconcerned with one body sharing two personalities, because she thinks she's going to come out on top. She also doesn't really care very much personally about Carrie at first, except maybe that changes later on throughout the story. Also, every time she turns into a physical dragon form, her presence becomes more and more noticable to the leaders of her own world, which causes them to set out on a final death mission...one that could just as easily kill Carrie as it could kill Zephyr. Also, every time that Zephyr turns into a physical dragon form, she finds that her own dimension, her own world pulls her more and more strongly back. Zedric is also trying to save Carrie while simultaneously pulling Zephyr out of Carrie and trying to return her to her own world.

Anyway, this is just me rambling out ideas as they pop in my head, you can change anything (or everything) you want. I have no idea for a resolution yet, but I think it would have to require Carrie doing something insanely nice for Zephyr, and Zephyr and Carrie becoming allies before the end of the story. Or, then again, maybe Zephyr could stay evil? Who knows?

I'd prefer Zephyr was originally very nice, but had a kind of Darth Vader thing happen to her. I'm not sure how I'm going to plan it out, though...O.o...but I do like your ideas. I might keep a few of them, if you don't mind

Of course. That's why I told you about them in the first place. It's your story, I'm just helping you out a little. As for starting out being nice, that's not hard to do. There are many ways to turn a good dragon into an evil one.

Thanks ^^...I'm thinking about making her obsessed with power, but she slowly turns back into a nice dragon...she dies though, in the end. She'll end up giving her life for Caarie's.

If she's obsessed with power, what would make her a nice dragon again? I mean, think about it. Once someone becomes totally evil and obsessed with power, do they ever stop hungering for it?

Only if they become obsessed with power for the right reasons...

loneliness can do a lot to someone...helps them clear their head and think a bit. more hate could come out of it, but with enough time, forgiveness could too...

Yeah...that was kinda my thought...

Lonliness? When you're intertwined in another's body?

When she was in the dust by herself.

She could think then?

Yeah...she had her soul bound to the dust. She couldn't turn back into her physical form, but she could think. You know...kinda like a genie in a bottle.

Ah, ok. So...for all these hundreds of years, what was she thinking?

I'm still working on this, but I might make it so her mate "turned her in." She was hurt and confused, but he did it out of concern for her safety. She'd probably (at first) have serious revenge issues, but later on, when she allows herself the time to think, she could possibly see the real reason for his betrayal.

Do you think perhaps her spirit could have some limited mobility during that time?

Limited mobility?

Like, maybe her spirit could escape from the dust for a short time without dissipating into the air? Or perhaps with extreme efforts of will, she could move the dust some distance like a blob? Also, as a another question, where would you begin the story?

Her spirit was bound to the dust. She couldn't move even if she desperately wanted to. I would probably start it at the very beginning, when Zephyr gets caught.

Then how would you continue through hundreds of years of virtual inactivity? My suggestion: Start the story when Carrie comes into the picture, and leave the rest of the story as either a prologue or flashbacks.

That's the one thing about Dragon spirits. They always last...even if they go insane after a millennia...LOL. That sounds like a much better idea...I'm wanting to make Caarie more of the main character...

Another question: What is Zedric's relationship with Carrie?

Zedric found Caarie abandoned in box when she was just a baby. He took her home and raised her...everyone thinks he's her real father, even though there's no resemblance.

Okay, but how do they feel towards each other?? And does Carrie know of her background? (As a side note, who are her real parents?)

Caarie always somehow knew that Zedric was not her father, but she loves him just like a daughter would love her true father (even with his eccentric personality). Zedric passes a little of his eccentricity to Caarie...just because of his everyday habits. He loves Caarie just as a man loves his daughter. It's an interesting relationship cuz Caarie knows her "father" isn't exactly...normal. Caarie was told that he was her true father, but she doesn't believe it. She doesn't know her true past, but she'll figure it out eventually. Her true parents were drug addicts that ended up dumping her because she was a "mistake" and they couldn't afford taking care of her and paying for drugs at the same time. Her father is dead and her mother is wandering the streets now, looking for anything that might get her money.

Mmmm....that's a little stereotypical, but whatever. Anyway, do Carrie's real parents play any part in the actual story??

I haven't really decided that yet...but I'm considering making her mom a part of the plot...

What part would she play?

I don't know yet, but I'm thinking I'd make her the reason Caarie would want to stay in this world (besides the possibility of dying...she might not know that fact just yet)

So she knows her mother? How? And why would a drunken mother who abandoned her child be an incentive for Caarie to stay?

I'm not sure how I'm going to work all of this out...eh heh

AAaaahh. This looks great. Seriously. I wish I could draw like this. Anime always has a way of moving my spirit, probably because of the eyes.

Anime has a great grasp on emotions...I enjoy the more realistic anime, like Mishashi Kishimoto's work. The focus is on the eyes, always.

Certainly. My favorite anime show is Full Metal Alchemist. I think the story is as good as the pictures.

I really like that show too...I've only seen a little of it, but I like it so far.

My favorite animes are Gurren Lagann, Mahoraba Heartful Days, and Rurouni Kenshin. Very different I know, but I love them all. I also like several other animes as well.

WOW, this is really cool

Thanks lol

ur very welcome... i don't remember you from before... sooo hello! XD

Lol...yeah, I'm new. I joined about 2 months or so ago...it's nice to meet you. LOL

thats cool, i just saw some of your other pics, i love your self portrait!!!

Thank you...lol. Yeah, she was a lot of work...I really like the designs I put on her back. I've always looked for my favorite design and it's always eluded me...until I really looked at a turtle shell. I really liked that design so I decided to put it on Zephyr.

LOM!!!! *supertacklehuggleglomp* You're back! ^-^

You know...no offense to LOM...I love how LOM rhymes with nom. Wow. I'm feeling unreasonably random today.

And Mom and Pompom.... XDDDD

XDDDD That's awesome.

wow! awesome pic@ very pretty

Thanks Nayru. ^^

Awesome rhymes with possum!!

I know! I say awesome possum all the time!

We're so weird...

We're Dragnixians...

Yeah. So we're entitled to being a little bit off-kilter. Oh, and when I say "awesome possum" I say it like "awethum pothum."

Do you have a lisp? Or do you mean to say it like that?

No I don't...I just say it like that.

ZEPHYR!!!! *uberninjaglomps*

*is uberninjaglomped* You know, I don't know if I can come up with a glomp that's better than that one...I'm feeling horribly uncreative right now. GAH!

*uber-mega-super-ultra-sneak-ninja-glomps zephyr*

Holy junk! Now that is epic!

holy mc cheezits that was epic like blue on berry or peanut on butter XD

....*gigglesnorts* Also... I doesn't need an epic glomp but *glomps catc, silveera, and zephyr with a smile*

aww *glomps back and Hope does as well (well jumps on rana's shoulder purring)*

awww *pets hope*

^^ Kitties are awesome.

Hope: >^n.n^< I am very happy i caught a mouse! want it? *drops a little baby mouse at rana's feet it sits quivering its big brown eyes watching everything* you can have it cats will kill me if i bring another one <.< >.> *hides mouse from my veiw*

I love my gandalf but he's a horrible mouser! *gandalf glares evilly at me* awww...but he's fluffy and cute and always wants a snuggle. *gandalf purrs*