Shipping in Final Fantasy the Fourteenth is dangerous business. Especially since glamour is the real endgame.

My acquisition of Laurel Kent by Anthony Castrillo  

If I had a nickel for every 90s cartoon in which a familiar comic book hero is thrown into a high-tech cyberpunk setting and ends up friends with a killer robot who broke its programming and grew a conscience....three nickels.

Left to Right, in order of them tackling this plot: The Phantom 2040 (1994, where a shapeshifting Biot named Heisenberg is basically one of his super friends), Spider-Man Unlimited (1999, featuring a VERY loose adaptation of Jack Kirby's X-51 The Machine Man), and Batman Beyond (also 1999, his robot buddy Zeta even got his own show).

What do other Inhabitors think of Evor? Are his eating habits considered unusual or are there others who are more selective of their diet too? (Love the concept of this OC, super cool!)

Evor is considered an outlier by his people. The concept of “honor” and knightlihood is foreign to Inhabiters, and so is showing mercy to food. Most Inhabiters think themselves superior to humans (and in terms of pure survival, they’re right, considering their longer lifespans and adaptability), so they don’t understand his tendency to try to spare potential food or to only eat “bad” people. A sliding scale of morality isn’t really a part of Inhabiter society. They believe in doing what is needed, and what is needed varies from person to person. Evor needs food to survive, so why isn’t he eating when he needs to?

I’ve always been a fan of the “blue and orange morality” trope and I like to think of Inhabiters as almost more alien than monster. I took a lot of inspiration from the Sym/biotes from the Spid/er-Man comics in their design and their concept. They’re pretty solitary creatures, too, and not too many in number due to being hunted down/not reproducing very often, so Evor doesn’t really come across any of his own kind, anyway. Inhabiters just kinda mind their own business.

Thank you for your interest!

“[...] Ney était plus populaire encore. Lui qu’on décorait de surnoms farouches: le Rougeaud, ou Michel le Rouge, ou encore le Lion Rouge, à cause de sa crinière flamboyante, il n’était terrible que dans la mêlée; sa bonhomie, sa simplicité, son étrange indulgence pour les poltrons étaient connues de toute l’armée. Il semblait n’avoir jamais peur et pourtant nul ne comprenait mieux qu’on pût avoir peur. Au plus dur des campagnes, il couchait sur la planche et partageait les menus de fortune de ses officiers. Il était toujours prêt à faire le premier ce qu’il avait le devoir d’exiger des autres. Le soir d’Eylau, comme on escomptait pour le lendemain une seconde bataille, il exhortait les plus fatigués à se bien reposer pour mieux combattre ensuite. “S’il le faut, disait-il, je mettrai pied à terre, le sabre à la main, et j’espère qu’on me suivra.” Il l’eût fait, mais au lever du jour on vit que les Russes avaient décampé. A l’encontre de Lefebvre, de Davout et de bien d’autres, il avait renoncé au ton injurieux que beaucoup croyaient nécessaire pour obtenir l’obéissance. A Redinha, il observe un faux mouvement de l’artillerie et dit brusquement au général Charbonnel qui la commandait: “Oh! f... général, que fait donc votre artillerie ?” Mais aussitôt, il réprime sa colère et s’excuse: “Ah! pardon! je m’emporte.” Pendant la campagne de Russie, il rencontre, au fort d’une action, un général réputé pour sa pusillanimité, qui se retire parce qu’un boulet a écorné son chapeau. Ney sourit et demande: “Etes-vous blessé ?- Non, je ne crois pas, balbutie le fuyard. - En ce cas, retournez à votre brigade, et après la bataille, vous retrouverez sans peine une autre coiffure.” Une autre fois, son aide-de-camp Clouet lui rapporte une scène mi-comique, mi-odieuse qu’il vient d’avoir avec un général peu soucieux d’exposer sa vie dans une très chaude bagarre. Comme Clouet apportait de la part du maréchal l’ordre de charger, le couard a cherché à gagner du temps en engageant une conversation mondaine: “Vous souvenez-vous, dit-il, de l’excellente musique que nous exécutions chez la comtesse Merlin ?- Mon général, répondit le brave Clouet, il ne s’agit pas de filer des sons, mais de faire filer l’ennemi.” La charge partit enfin, mais si lentement qu’elle arriva trop tard. A ce récit, Ney reste calme, et, au lieu de l’explosion attendue, il laisse tomber, “sur un ton de compatissante bonhomie”, ces mots désabusés: “Que voulez-vous, mon cher, les hommes ont leurs mauvais moments.”

S’il trouvait des excuses à ceux qui ne savaient pas maîtriser leur frayeur et qui ne s’en cachaient pas, le maréchal détestait par contre les fanfarons. Il lui arriva de donner de rudes leçons. Un bretteur renommé, grand amateur de duels où son entraînement lui donnait une facile supériorité, avait une fois tourné le dos à une batterie ennemie qu’il était chargé d’enlever. Le soir, Ney le retrouve paradant devant ses camarades. “Monsieur, lui dit-il, depuis que j’existe, j’ai vu bien des poltrons; je n’en ai point rencontré d’aussi plats que vous.” Ainsi, loin d’encourager la lâcheté, le maréchal savait à propos la cingler d’un mot dur.”

Louis Chardigny, Les Maréchaux de Napoléon, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, P. 245-246.

“[...] Ney was even more popular. He who was adorned with fierce nicknames: the Rougeaud, or Michel le Rouge, or even the Lion Rouge, because of his flamboyant mane, he was only terrifying in the fray; his bonhomie, his simplicity, his strange indulgence for scaredy-cats was known to the whole army. He seemed never to be afraid and yet no one understood better that one could be afraid. At the height of the campaign, he slept rough and shared his officers' makeshift menus. He was always ready to do first what he had to demand from others. The evening of Eylau, as a second battle was expected for the following day, he urged the most tired to rest well in order to fight better afterwards. "If necessary," he said, "I will dismount, saber in hand, and I hope that someone will follow me." He would have done it, but at daybreak they saw that the Russians had cleared off. Unlike Lefebvre, Davout and many others, he had given up the offensive tone that many believed was necessary to obtain obedience. At Redinha, he observes a false artillery movement and suddenly tells General Charbonnel who commanded it: “Oh! f ... general, what is your artillery doing? ” But immediately he controls his anger and apologizes: “Ah! sorry! I'm losing my temper." During the Russian campaign, he meets, in the heat of an action, a general known for his pusillanimity, who withdraws because a ball has chipped the corner of his hat. Ney smiles and asks, “Are you hurt?” “No, I don't think so,” stammers the fugitive. - In that case, go back to your brigade, and after the battle, you will easily find another hat. ” Another time, his aide-de-camp Clouet reports to him a half-comic, half-odious scene he has just had with a general who cares little about exposing his life in a very hot fight. As Clouet brought the order from the marshal to charge, the coward tried to save time by engaging in a social conversation: “Do you remember, he says, the excellent music that was performed at Countess Merlin's ?"-"General," replied the brave Clouet, "this is not about dashing sounds, but about making the enemy dash off." The charge finally departed, but so slowly that it arrived too late. At this tale, Ney remains calm, and, instead of the expected explosion, he drops, “in a tone of compassionate bonhomie”, these disillusioned words: “What do you want, my dear, men have their bad times. ”

If he found excuses for those who did not know how to control their fright and who did not hide it, the marshal, on the other hand, hated braggarts. He sometimes gave impressive lessons. A renowned swordsman, a great lover of duels where his training gave him easy superiority, had once turned his back on an enemy battery which was his responsibility to take. In the evening, Ney finds him parading in front of his comrades. "Sir," Ney tells him, "since I was born, I have seen many cowards; I have never come across a sorrier one than you." Thus, far from encouraging cowardice, the marshal knew when to aptly lash out at it with a harsh word. ”

Sources contemporaines:

Souvenirs militaires de 1804 à 1814, François-Xavier de Montesquiou-Fezensac

Le Maréchal Ney, Charles-A.-François Huchet de La Bédoyère

Souvenirs [..], Colonel Hubert-François Biot

Hey. Hey you know what Ca/tes couldve done? You know what couldve been cool? After the symb/iote went basically Dead we couldve seen the months E/ddie spent alone. Him trying really hard to get it back at first but eventually kind of starting to accept that its gone, and him kind of coming to terms with that and liking being his own person again, and then suddenly the Sy/mbiote comes back for Some Comic Reason and notices E//ddie doesnt really feel the same way about it anymore. It couldve been a really interesting thing where like they explore the fact E/ddie threw away a normal life with normal healthy interaction with humans years ago all for the symb/iote and maybe them like trying to work something out when it comes back so they can stay together and E/ddie doesnt have to abandon everything again. You Know.  Like, actual conflict, not the same shit of the sym/biote manipulating Ed/die all along even though it has literally no reason to

listen i know each hero comic writer is gonna do their own thing and rewrite whatever but *bangs on the doors of m arvel* can you tell us what’s the name of the venom sym/biote if you’re going to plant the possibility of it into our brains

A gift to me from the artist. Laurel Kent by @fernandoruizeverybody