✦ Vigil ✦

these two are so interesting to me

characters belong to @canisalbus

A Vaschete universe oc for me!

I loved machete’s outfit in the photo on the right and it inspired me to make Esme.

I’m not well versed in history tbh and I barely know anything about the 16th-17th century so this is probably not very accurate. But…

Esme is a Silken Windhound (which’s origin was in the United States but I’m pretending that their origin was somewhere in Europe so that this timeline makes sense-)

And he was born and raised in Scotland (one of my favorite European countries just because of the history there) and he is an advisor to a Noble Family

He was born in 1689 and died in 1747. He lived to be 58

Hopefully that makes historical sense. My bf is a history nerd so maybe I’ll run the Esme lore passed him, but I wanted to post this anyway. Hopefully I’ll get the inspiration to finish this art haha

Machete and the universe he is set in (along with the art on the right) belongs to @canisalbus I love your art and your lovely dogs :)

Have you drawn Vittorio before? I'd like to see what he looks like pls.

Vittorio's design has given me more trouble than I expected, I'm still not sure if I'm happy with his looks. He's Machete's trusted personal secretary, a small and modest but resourceful and resilient man. I think he's somewhere in his mid 20's.

“he also employs a very competent personal doctor” - does this doctor have a name, or breed, or perhaps reference pictures? I would like to know… for reasons, lol!

Doctor Matteo Frosini, I imagine him as a fiftysomething Bracco Italiano from Florence. He has a dignified and collected look to him, but he can be surprisingly jovial and good-natured as well. Above all he's pragmatic, confident in his abilities and unflappable in a time of crisis.

How well could Machete take care of a sick Vasco?

He wouldn't be completely useless at it, I think. Medicine was one of the subjects he minored in so he has at least surface level theoretical knowledge on diseases and potential treatments. But he also employs a very competent personal doctor and if Vasco suddenly fell ill while visiting him, he'd likely trust Vasco in his hands rather than trying to diagnose and treat him on his own. Machete relies on doctors but Vasco isn't a fan, he wouldn't like being examined.

Vasco doesn't get sick very often so I'd imagine it would be a nerve-racking experience, Machete already fusses about his health and wellbeing when he's in peak condition. Vasco also has something of a habit of masking and downplaying it when he's actually hurt, so if he's looking and behaving visibly out of sorts it's something to worry about.

Machete would probably act a lot like those dogs that get concerned when their owners are feeling unwell, staying beside him (but mostly keeping a respectful distance in fear of coming across annoying and overbearing) as much as possible and feeling too consumed by anxiety to get anything else done. I can imagine him attempting to mirror the way Vasco himself acts when he's trying to comfort and cheer people up.

You’ve most likely answered this before but what breed exactly is Machete? I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while I’ve thought maybe a saluki but the ears arnt right.

In theory his breed is fictional Podenco Siciliano, but he's not a purebred example. Out of existing dog breeds he looks closest to (and is related to) Ibizan Hound.

But sometimes I see Silken Windhounds that also kind of remind me of him. They just don't have the characteristic bat ears.

Do your ocs have like bean paws? I don’t think they have them on their hands, but what about their feet? Sorry if it’s a bit weird!

They do have paw pads on their hands and feet! This is just a quick messy sketch but hopefully it sort of illustrates the look I personally go for with my anthros.

Do the ears of your anthros move and convey body language, like irl dogs (ears back = fear or appeasement, etc) ? or is it just out of emotion, not intentionally communicating anything, but like a.. side effect (? idk how to word this) of feeling emotions?

I think it's a little bit of both? They tend to be more instictive (based on emotions) than calculated (deliberately used in nonverbal communication). They're an expressive facial feature like eyes, eyebrows and mouths. A specific ear position isn't restricted to a single emotion. Just like a human smile isn't always a sign of happiness, ears pulled back isn't necessarily a fearful, sad or submissive gesture, you have to interpret their whole face.

Floppy eared dogs have less range of motion than dogs with upright ears, which can make their faces a little harder to read, but the difference is pretty negligible. This is actually one of the reasons why Vasco is usually more challenging for me to draw, it's like his head is missing an entire layer of expressiveness when he doesn't have big satellite dishes to emote with.

Absolutely sending me that vasco sleeps butt fucking naked with his weird little Victorian doll boyfriend

Different strokes for different folks.

Vasco finds sleepwear kind of unnecessary and restricting. He doesn't insist on sleeping nude and can go to bed decently dressed if the situation calls for it, but if it's up to him and he's comfortable and in trusted company, he prefers wearing very little.

Machete gets cold easily and has weird body image issues, not being properly covered tends to distress him. Plus he has a thing for high guality garments and wants to look pretty or at least passably presentable even in bed.

So you've said before that regular dogs don't exist in Machete + Vasco's universe, since they're all anthropomorphized dogs. (Geez that's a big word–) But does that apply to all canines? Do normal wolves, coyotes, foxes, etc. still exist, or are they completely gone? Or did they become anthro, too?

Hehe sorry, I love worldbuilding and I'm too curious for my own good lol

Correct, four-legged domestic dogs don't exist because they have evolved to fill the role of 'people' in their universe.

Humans are absent and never existed.

Wild canines exist, but they're not anthropomorphic, they're the same as in our world. Dogs recognize wolves/coyotes/foxes etc. are similar to them in some ways, but view them as lesser creatures (similarly to how people see or have seen apes and monkeys) and typically have no qualms about hunting them. (Eventually dog Darwin will publish his controversial theory about anthro dogs and quadrupedal wolves sharing a common ancestor).

The rest of the animal kingdom is the same. Dogs have human diets (with slight emphasis on meat) and raise livestock for food, and keep cats, birds, rodents and other domestic animals as pets.

Hey horse people, I'd love to hear your input on something:

I think Vasco's personal/favorite horse would be a dapple grey Andalusian. My equine knowledge is embarrassinly limited, but I believe they were held in very high regard among early modern European nobility, the real fancy-pants option you could say. Does that sound like a believable choice?

Is there a significant practical difference between mares, geldings and stallions? I know stallions were favored as war and tournament horses (the term for these is destrier I believe, think of medieval knights on horseback), but if we're talking about a horse you use mostly for riding, travel and hunting (these were called palfreys), would a gelding or a mare be preferred?

And from a historical point of view, if you were a wealthy noble that didn't do much fighting, would you still own a prestigious destrier horse just for showing off? Even if a palfrey was better suited for your needs? Not that it matters, I'm just trying to piece stuff together.

I've been trying to come up with a name for Vasco's horse, any suggestions?

What kind of flowers and fruits would the two be?

Vasco - damask roses, irises and peaches.

Machete - poppies, carnations and pomegranates.

What is the one thing that bothers each other on their lover?

Not huge icks, but small bothers?

Vasco can be forgetful and a bit irresponsible. And even if he means well, he sometimes comes across inconsiderate, he just doesn't always think things through. He's usually very sure of himself, stubborn and resistant to accepting advice if he thinks he knows what he's doing. Occasionally he misreads the situation and his attempts to lighten the mood misfire so severely, it's like he's incapable taking things seriously.

Machete has a nitpicky control freak side to him that gets more pronounced when he's stressed. He's prone to bottling up his emotions and then feeling misunderstood when people can't read his mind. He finds a way to blame himself for everything and is a chronic over-apologizer.

Sorry if this has been asked a bunch of times already but...How did they meet?

In the original canon, they were both studing theology in Venice at the same time. Vasco had been sent there by his parents, who had recently found out he's gay and hoped that proper strict education would straighten him up. Machete's former mentor had just became a bishop and no longer had time for keeping an apprentice, so he funded his further studies as a rare display of goodwill. Their classes overlapped a little bit so they knew each other by sight, but they mostly hang around in different circles. Vasco was well liked in his friend group which consisted of other sons of rich nobles, and Machete spent a lot of his free time voluntarily helping teachers and professors around the faculty or kept to himself. One of Vasco's buddies started picking on Machete and Vasco (as an overprotective 'can't have people feeling bad or sad around him' good boy he is) felt responsible and started following him around (mostly to soothe his own guilty conscience) and eventually they became friends.

Over time their relationship started to gain romantic tones and they ended up living together in a tiny rented attic room. I'm not sure how their break up played out exactly, but in the end Machete graduated and went on to be ordained as a priest (a goal he had trained for all his life), while Vasco dropped out and reluctantly returned to his parents, who swiftly forced him into a lavender marriage to cover up his sexuality. I can imagine them anquishing over the situation as the end loomed ever closer, trying to come up with a scenario where they could still secretly be together. Unfortunately at least one of them would have to throw away a promising future for a plan that could fail at any time. The price was too high and the risks were immense so they just had to allow the separation to happen. Some 10+ years later they meet again by random chance, Machete has advanced in his career rapidly and is now a cardinal secretary of state, and Vasco has followed his father's footsteps into politics and works as a Florentine ambassador. Since both of their jobs center around diplomacy and foreign relations, they end up working together frequently, which conveniently enables them to see each other off-the-clock as well. They resume where they left off.

You mentioned before that the people who would have access to Machete's bedchamber would likely already know about Vasco. How did that come up in your mind? Did they get caught in the act or was the subject broached with enough trust? How did those people handle it? Sorry if this is a bit vague but I thought about it today and I'm very interested. :)

I think it just has to be the case, I can't imagine how they could manage to hide the fact Vasco is bunking with him from everyone, for years and years. Machete doesn't live alone, he has staff and servants who do his housekeeping and run his errands. Even if Vasco didn't stay there for any extended periods of time and snuck out the back door to avoid attention, I'm assuming at least the people who do his laundry and change his sheets would eventually detect that some sort of funny business had happened. But the number of people who are in on it is still very very small and tightly controlled. His assistant Vittorio definitely knows and helps to manage this situation, so does his personal doctor, and on top of that maybe a handful of most trusted high-ranking emplyees, which he has vetted extremely carefully and pays handsomely for their discreetness and prudence.