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reds-skull · 2 months

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More Cyberknight AU sketches... I can already tell I'll have to do something with this universe, considering how much I'm thinking about the world building, plot, characters...

Speaking of world building, gonna write down some of it under the cut, if anyone's interested... (it turned out to be....... a lot..............)

Alright, so obviously there's a lot of influence of medieval knight armor, so my first line of thought was adding some sort of magic system. Initially I was like "well, can't use the magic system I have in my original stories, since Revenant AU is based on that, and if I do that again it would be way too similar". I considered scrapping magic off this AU completely, because I didn't think I could make a magic system different enough from rev AU to not be just the same thing but To The Left. And then it hit me.

COD already has a magic system. In Zombies.

Now, the Aether is not really treated as magic, more like scientific phenomena, but it's practically magic, taking to account the field upgrades, and its effect on living being (zombies, and special zombies like manglers, mimics, disciples...).

And the moment I thought about that, everything started clicking together.

Picture this, post apocalyptic world. Operation Deadbolt failed, and the Aether spread from Urzikstan to the rest of the world. Decades later, humanity found ways to ward it off, leaving swaths of land infected with the Aether, quarantined away from the remaining human cities.

This quarantine isn't perfect, however, and certain Aether forms threaten the delicate peace on the cities. This is where the Cyberknights come in.

Using Aether portals (the ones in-game), they teleport deep into Aether territory, and with motorcycles traverse the land, tracking big Aether forms that pose a big enough threat.

Scientists have found ways to build weapons made of Aether. The more in the metal, the better, so guns were now dwarfed by the power of swords and spears. These new weapons use the Aether of fallen enemies as a power source, for charging a powerful attack (in-game they're called Field Upgrades, and I'm giving them a lore explanation as to why it takes a while to charge them, and why it charges by killing zombies).

There are a few types of Aether forms: Aether-Mechanical (think the Manglers from the game), native Aether forms (Disciples, mimics, Aether worm), and infected Aether forms (humans turned zombies). Because of that, each unit must include at least one of each: a mechanic (in charge of equipment, and the mechanical nature of Aether-Mechanical forms), an Aether expert (for teleporters, and Aether forms in general) and a fighter (acting as sort of a tank as the others work).

I also thought a bit about the 141's weapons and field upgrades, so here's a little blurb on each:

Soap - Wields 2 short swords, the right with Cryo Freeze (Ammo Mod in-game), and the left with Napalm Burst. Field Upgrade is Frenzied Guard: Killing zombies grants a shield, but all hostiles are attracted to Soap once he turns it on. This Field Upgrade is usually reserved for fighters, which Soap used to be, but he's now acting as a mechanic for the 141 unit.

The blue and red in his design are for his ammo mods, ice and fire, and the helmet obviously resembles his hairstyle. Originally I went for something more Scottish, but it didn't look exactly like I imagined (Scottish warriors were notorious for not wearing a lot of armor, and they kinda scared other cultures, sometimes carrying the head of their enemies to intimidate others. So metal haha).

Gaz - Wields a spear, that uses Aether as a sort of magnetic force, meaning he can throw it and pull it back. Field Upgrade is Energy Blast: turning it on will create a force field around him, pushing and injuring anyone attempting to get close to him (this is a modified version of the Energy Mine in MWZ, just thought I can make it more interesting).

The purple on his belt are Aether crystals, as he's the 141's Aether expert. The "horns" on his helmet are actually a detector of Aether forms (and they're there to look cool).

Price - Wields a foldable shield, and a short sword, with Brain Rot applied to it (Brain Rot will make a zombie turn to your side for a short while, attacking hostiles for a few moments before their head explodes). Field Upgrade is Healing Aura, which will... heal everyone around him, obviously. Price is the fighter of the 141.

Price is nicknamed "The White Knight", as a well known fighter with a long history of felled Aether superforms. The piece on his right arm (his right), is his shield in folded form.

G.H.O.S.T. is a robot, powered by Aether, the first of his kind. This means he uses 2 Field Upgrades: Aether Shroud, making him go invisible for a short while, and Tesla Storm, which channels bolts of electricity through his body and his teammates', as well as his knives, so he makes sure to throw them in tactical positions before activating this. The electricity doesn't hurt his teammates, their armor makes sure of that, but it will kill lower Aether lifeforms, and damage the stronger ones. G.H.O.S.T. is the secondary fighter of the 141.

G.H.O.S.T. - Wields several knives, that use a similar technology to Gaz's spear, meaning he can pull them back at will.

[Edit: forgot to mention that the things sticking out of his forearms are his knives]

His design is based on the "Gilded Ghost" skin in-game, without the gilded part lol. The purple parts are the Aether powering his mechanical body.

For the story, I have something planned... but I don't wanna spoil you lmao. I was thinking a lot about Soap, who (if I make a fic which lets be honest I probably will) will be the POV.

Soap joins the 141 mainly as a mechanic. Each unit has a fighter, a mechanic, and an Aether expert. Gaz is the Aether expert, and Price is the fighter, G.H.O.S.T. acting as a support for Soap when the unit splits up. Soap comes from the northern territories, so he's very different from the rest in terms of his background, basically an outsider. He used to be a fighter, but a knee injury forced him to change positions. All members of a unit can fight, but it's not their main job, bar the fighter of course. He feels bitter about that.

He finds in G.H.O.S.T. an odd companionship, considering the robot can't feel. His AI is exceptionally advanced, so he does talk unnervingly, almost like a human. Soap often just rants, talking about his home city, about the life he used to have, and G.H.O.S.T. listens with no complaints, not that a robot can really complain.

It all changed on one fateful deployment, where Soap and G.H.O.S.T. get separated from the rest, and Soap finds the truth behind G.H.O.S.T.'s technology...

That's all I'm gonna leave you with for now, haha. As you can probably tell, I spent a lot of time playing Zombies in MW3 (idk I just find it a good way to relax), so I really enjoy trying to think of explanations for each mechanic, and how the world would look like 50 years in the future.

#call of duty modern warfare 2 #cod mw2 #cod soap #cod ghost #cod gaz #cod price #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #kyle gaz garrick #john price #cyberknights au #cod zombies #cod mwz #cod fanart

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genericpuff · 6 months

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The Extended Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Finale Premiere

Alright, so I had mentioned leading up to the release of the newest LO episode that my feelings regarding LO returning were pretty "meh". Not hyped, but not completely back of mind either. Just sort of a weird calm before the storm type feeling that could go either way.

I'm glad I got to have that moment of calmness because good god, this episode was an absolute shitshow. And honestly, I'm not surprised, for several reasons:

Rachel has never been good at maintaining a buffer, even back at the start of the series she only ever had 2-3 episodes ready ahead of her schedule which is NOT an ideal buffer for an originals series.

Rachel has never been good at writing, she's very "draw first write later" and has stated as such in interviews that when she gets 'stuck' on what she's writing, she'll just start drawing and fit the pieces in later.

Four months is NOT enough time to both rest, attend massive conventions, and work on improving a project while also getting buffer episodes ready.

Because of the FP episodes remaining locked over the hiatus, technically Rachel only needed to have ONE episode ready upon return for the newest FP release, not multiple like she'd usually need like in the past during the S2 midseason hiatus or the season finale episodes which would unlock those FP releases like normal - so for all we know, she could have drawn this episode literally last week, especially when the promo material was so last minute. Frankly I think it was REALLY stupid for whoever it was who decided to keep these FP episodes locked (whether it was her or WT, it was more likely WT) but you can read all I have to say about that in my review of the midseason finale episodes.

All that's to say, no, there was never any guarantee Rachel was going to somehow "turn around" the ride we're currently on. I know that many of the critics were hoping for that to happen, but with the circumstances of the hiatus mixed with Rachel's bad habits of putting her best efforts into the procrastination projects that aren't her actual comic (ex. the few original pieces and LO sketches she put out during the hiatus) it just wasn't in the cards. This is where the comic is at and this is where it will remain until it's over.

I want to also point something out about this episode that was... really glaring to me.

As with all of these hiatus returns, LO got priority advertising in the first two banner slots and push notifications AND a popup ad within the app. This is unsurprising, Webtoons is still trying to milk this thing for what it's worth.

I know a lot of people are gonna focus on the art, or the fact that WT is continuing to shill LO, but I wanna point out the part that WT implemented specifically - "NEW SEASON".

This is literally just false. At best I'd like to think some intern just messed up and thought this was a new season, but it's literally not, the episode designation still says "S3". Note that the creators only design the banner art, the actual labels on top are put there by Webtoons.

But at worst, this feels like blatant lying to continue to hide the fact that LO is ending. Mind you, Rachel and Webtoons have still not put out official posts stating that this is the final arc. There is NOTHING from either of them to communicate to the audience that the comic is ending next year. It feels like they're trying to avoid the topic altogether out of fear of losing the fanbase they still have, rather than hyping up the comic's end for those who have stuck around to see how it all wraps up. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, considering they're now trying to funnel the fanbase into Penguin/Inklore with new marketing deals and the whole Rachel Smythe Presents thing. They're trying to make this seem like the beginning of something "new" when it's really just a quiet shifting of management (Penguin House).

But all that aside, let's actually get into the episode. It's one episode after 4 months, which is not standard for LO's hiatuses, typically FP episodes release on schedule (meaning free readers start hiatuses 3 weeks after FP readers do), the only time this has been an exception has been with the 2 week breaks because the whole point of those was to build a buffer (which you can't do if you're going ahead and releasing the FP episodes anyways). For extended hiatuses like these, usually free readers still get their FP episodes, but that wasn't the case here. That means Rachel technically only needed one episode ready for the comic's return, and it shows. It really fucking shows.

FROM HERE ON OUT THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS REGARDING EPISODE 254. DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED !!!

As per tradition, we get a title that means nothing at all. It just says what we already know.

Our collective husband Zeus is dying, no thanks to the poison cupcake fed to him by Apollo. For those who don't remember, Apollo had tricked Zeus into eating the cupcake by making him believe it was from Hebe. We are fully aware that it was Apollo who poisoned him. Remember that for later in this review.

Right off the bat we're off to a hilarious start, both with a cryptid appearance from Apollo in the background (lmao) who is, for some reason, ALREADY returning to the scene of the crime he just committed because... who knows at this point. Apollo and Psyche know it was Apollo at this point, I might add, but I have no clue why Apollo is actually returning to the scene of the crime when he has no idea Eros and Psyche know.

Moving on from that, can we talk about this hilarious dialogue?

"We have to call a doctor! Let's call Asclepius!"

"No, we can't trust him! Gosh darn it, why are we only bothering to think of ONE doctor in this universe where we've seen more than one doctor?? Guess Zeus is just gonna die! What a horribly contrived situation this is!"

And that's literally how I can best describe most of this episode. Contrived. There is a LOT of manufactured drama in this that makes ZERO sense even on a surface level.

And what do you mean exactly, Eros? "What a terrible system!" Is this supposed to be a joke? Lampshading? We've seen Persephone go to the gynecologist. There are non-god doctors who tend to gods all the time here.

Eros just doesn't seem to be that pressed over this, he sounds like Ned Flanders and that's NOT a good way to open up a scene like this... let alone an episode people have been waiting four months for.

Anyways, after a few pointless reaction panels (again remember I have to cut a lot of what I show here for Tumblr image limitations but I promise you, I'm keeping as much important stuff as I can in this, there's just THAT MUCH filler at this point), Eros and Psyche confront Apollo and he is... good god.

There is... so much to unpack here.

First of all, remember those theories about how Rachel was clearly trying to write Apollo as this "secret twist villain" the whole time but it doesn't work because Apollo is simultaneously written as both a 'conniving villain' and a massive dumbass at the same time?

Well, I finally have a more appropriate term for him. He's your average red pill redditor - someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else when really all he does is sit on reddit all day using big words incorrectly in arguments he gets himself into with a bunch of equally-air-headed dumbasses.

"You can't possibly understand the nuances of the Olympian political system," Apollo said proudly, a man who had, ironically and obliviously, run for president in a monarchy. The union of kettle and pot is eternal.

He's the Slappable Jerk but instead of it being a painfully hilarious impression, it's just painful and hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

this is so stupid because it's 1.) Eros pointing out how obvious Apollo's plan was, despite Apollo acting smart two seconds ago with a goddess who, mind you, has been a goddess for ten years, and 2.) patricide isn't even intrinsically linked to politics, there's nothing 'political' about a guy trying to kill his dad except in, idk, a monarchy, which again, Apollo has spent ten years trying to rise to power in as a president which is a completely different form of government.

If I wanted to be really granular with this, I'd like to think Apollo is making some kind of point about the critics who call out LO's whack as fuck political system (especially in the trial arc) - as if he's saying "well you're just a stupid reader and this is fantasy where you don't understand exactly what political system we're using, so shut the fuck up you stupid twig" - but I don't think it's meant to be that deep. I think it's just Rachel trying to write a smart character and then failing at it because she, herself, is not a smart writer. And I'm really inclined to believe that more than the theory about this being some kind of meta-narrative about the critics because this entire plotline is contrived and stupid down to its core.

I did not cut anything out here, that's the pacing. Leto literally just appears out of nowhere and uh oh spaghettio's, she has Kassandra! Remember Leto? The character we were led to believe was truly "pulling the strings" until she disappeared from the story completely after she realized that Apollo and Persephone weren't a thing, even going so far as to call out her own son for being a fucking dumbass? Well, she's back and once again she's being involved as some kind of "double agent" in this whole thing, even though we literally haven't seen her since halfway through S2.

"Mm yes, you're so stupid, falling into my trap! Even though you had no reason to remember Kassandra anyways because she's literally a mortal woman you just met and you yourself have committed acts of violence against mortals without a shred of care! I'm so smart! My plan is all coming together!"

We've never seen Apollo do anything except cry and poop his pants, the closest he got to being "powerful" was his attempts to murder Daphne (who he seems to have forgotten about in this "master plan" of his) but ultimately he's literally just a piss ant baby and there's no reason to believe that he could somehow outmatch the God of Love who can literally manipulate people's emotions and states of mind with his arrows. But yeah sure go off, you're so powerful and smart.

The worst part is, I can't even buy this as the narrative trying to be like "see how manipulative and conniving he is?" because it's just silly. We've SEEN this man cry with his victim complex, we've seen him say and do the DUMBEST things that don't lend to any amount of "intelligence" he may have, it comes across less as him being "smart the whole time" and more as him trying to sound smart but ultimately sounding incredibly stupid. And I can't even immerse myself into it and buy that maybe that's the point, because it doesn't feel like the point, it just feels like inconsistent writing, he doesn't feel like a 'threat', he's just monologuing.

Bad art and Apollo literally just repeating what Leto already implied so this is a waste of the audience's time.

This is the funniest panel in the whole episode because I can't tell if Apollo is supposed to be in the background (for some reason, despite him literally being in front of Eros and Psyche two seconds ago) or if he's in the foreground and just REALLY small for some reason. This is so off-putting. And of course, it's just Apollo explaining what we're ALREADY SEEING ONSCREEN.

You see, in addition to this episode being contrived, it also talks down to its audience a LOT by explaining exactly what we're seeing onscreen. It's like Rachel saw the criticisms about her not including enough to depict what's actually going on in her head and so she thought the solution was to spoon feed information over pictures that are already doing the job of explaining what's going on. Rachel really doesn't know how to write and even when she tries to implement changes that reflect criticisms that have been made of her writing, she somehow makes things worse because she completely misses the point of what those criticisms are trying to get across.

Anyways, without even trying to resist (for some reason) Eros and Psyche get sentenced to horny jail.

They're now trapped in a basement that Leto somehow has in her home. How do we know that?

HAHAHA FUNNY LAMPSHADING SO FUNNNYYYYYYY

Leto claims that they shouldn't try to escape because the dungeon is "enchanted", but she doesn't even bother to explain what that means. So they literally don't bother trying. They don't try to call her bluff, they don't try to teleport out of there, they literally just go "well shoot", shrug their shoulders, and accept their fate. Just like with the whole "we can't trust the only doctor we bothered to think of" situation, Eros and Psyche are turning out to be some of the stupidest, lowest-effort characters in this comic who literally can't be bothered to try because that would require too much brain power.

Notice how much time we've spent on this and we haven't gotten back to where the cliffhanger of the last episode left off? Well buckle up because there's still more to cover.

So it turns out Hebe was still inside with her dad, in FULL VIEW of what was going on through glass which is somehow COMPLETELY soundproof, and when Apollo steps inside, she just has no idea what happened. She never bothered to even look outside to see what was going on with Eros and Psyche, she's just been sitting on the floor staring at Zeus' dead face for what was likely several minutes, unless Rachel is seriously trying to convince us that conversation and hostage negotiation from earlier only took 2 seconds. The timeline is such a mess at this point that characters basically freeze in place as soon as they're not the focus of the scene.

Apollo rushes inside, acting shocked over the situation, and when Hebe asks where Eros and Psyche are (again, she could have just looked out the window at any time), he's just like "dur idk they just left lol" which Hebe just... buys, I guess.

That's just Persephone but yellow. She's even missing her beauty mark.

See how Apollo put his hand on Zeus' chest/shoulder by the way?

Apparently, despite Mr. Smarter Than Everyone Else trying to pretend it wasn't him, he's able to discern that Zeus is dying from a toxic and rare poison just from touching him. He doesn't even really seem to use his powers, he just touches him and goes "welp he's dead i guess lol don't bother asking me how I know that".

But oh nooo remember that note from before? Well gasp Apollo's gonna use it to frame Hebe! In front of no one else at all!

Hebe of course says she didn't write it, but Apollo continues to try and frame her anyways, even though, again, there's no one else present here, and so it effectively just becomes the most absurd form of gaslighting I've ever seen.

Again, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE HERE IN THE SCENE. He's just trying to claim she did it to absolutely no one at all, in the hopes of... what exactly? That she'll just take the fall for something she knows she didn't do? That she'll somehow be convinced? It's not like Hebe has the same thing going on as Persephone where she has a 'wrathful dark side' he could pin it on, this is just a criminal who just robbed a building pointing at the first person they see and yelling "YOU DID IT!"

All I'm saying is that Apollo would be really bad at Among Us. He'd be the type of player to kill someone, hit the report button, then claim yellow did it which, even if he DID convince the rest of the team, would still get kicked anyways as soon as yellow was proven through the eject to not be the imp and everyone would go "okay cool so yellow wasn't the imp, that means obviously it's purple self-reporting." It's a trick that doesn't even work anymore because of how old it is. Hebe isn't a child here, she's an 18 year old woman who should be fully capable of raising an eyebrow and wondering why Apollo is this quick to accuse her - almost like he's trying to hide the fact that he did it.

But Hebe can't catch onto this, just like Eros and Psyche, she has to act stupid for the sake of the plot.

At first I thought maybe Rachel was trying to do some "whodunit" scenario, but that doesn't work here because we already know who did it. And while there are stories that exist like that that pull it off (ex. Knives Out) the problem with trying to do this the way Rachel did is that the person being framed has to have this thing called motive. The reason why Knives Out and Glass Onion work so well is because the person who was murdered (or conspired against) is someone who is being targeted by multiple people who could all be the murderer. It's quite literally called out in Glass Onion as a form of smart lampshading. "It's like putting a loaded gun on the table, and turning off the lights."

But it doesn't work here because Hebe does not have motive. If you're going to attempt to frame a murder on someone, it has to be someone who would have reasonable motive to commit that murder, even if they didn't actually commit it.

And who among Zeus' children has motive?

What about the war-mongering bloodthirsty god of war who has been regularly sentenced to time in the Mortal Realm to fight in wars in which he's been regularly injured?

What about the chaos-seeking wrathful goddess who would do it to get revenge on the parental figure who cast her aside, or even just for the fun of saying she did it?

Why try and pin it on Hebe, the doting daughter of Zeus who's only had a collective of maybe 20 panels in the entire comic?

But then I realized... it's not Knives Out, it's the fucking Lion King.

Which is just as contrived - if not more - than the assumption this was gonna be some attempt to frame Hebe. It's not. He's literally just trying to keep her from assuming it was him. He could have just as easily played dumb without calling attention to the note but he intentionally went out of his way to try and be Scar from The Lion King , while completely missing the point of why that scene worked in the original movie.

Scar wasn't trying to 'frame' Simba for Mufasa's murder. He was trying to hide the murder, while also attempting to get the only heir to the throne out of the picture, so he passed the guilt of the death onto Simba - a child who, unlike Hebe, wouldn't have the ability to rationalize or realize his uncle his a scumbag - who then ran away from home because he was too terrified to face his family for what happened, assuming that it was all his fault when it wasn't.

That's not how this is panning out here. Hebe is the now 18 year old daughter of Zeus, and not one of his only children. She doesn't even fit into the whole "sons overthrowing their fathers" prophecy like Aries would. Apollo is literally just being a big idiot here by saying "well I'm gonna give you a headstart to run away, because if you stay, I might hurt you" (which btw, should be MORE of a smoking gun that Apollo did it??)

And again, it's all so contrived so that the plot can move forward. "Well I'm going to frame you for this murder, but y'know, you should just leave, I'm not gonna try and press it further lmao"

Again, Apollo is a fucking idiot here, because he just attempted to frame someone who has NO MOTIVE to harm Zeus, to absolutely NO ONE at all who would side with him, only to let her go which would leave her to question why Apollo would try to accuse and harm her in the first place before considering other options. And through ALL this he claims he's the smart one, which I can't even be bothered to "love to hate" because it's written so poorly.

And really it all comes down to how everyone else behaves in relation to Apollo that makes it so stupid and unbelievable. Apollo, you're not smart just because all the characters around you are intentionally being written to be as stupid and non-confrontation as possible. If you can only write a smart villain by making everyone else stupid, you haven't written a smart villain, you've written a dumbass whose victory only happens due to contrived plot convenience. It's not even done well like in Glass Onion, it's just bad writing, full stop.

And who does he call to report this emergency? The satyr police? His son the doctor?

No.

The media. Literally just "hello, the media?? I need your best journalist here stat!"

I need you to understand, even if he were calling a tabloid magazine like The Weekly Nark, you don't just... call a journalist to report a murder. These are not the actions of someone who's trying to absolve himself of guilt, these are the actions of a complete dumbass trying to get news coverage of his trophy kill who would be better off just playing dumb instead of trying to play smart. Even Walter White wasn't this fucking stupid despite all the times he fell on his own sword, Apollo is literally just instigating suspicion towards himself for no reason at all. He's self-reporting so hard and worst of all, you can't even take any of this seriously because of how corny it is. There's no dramatic tension, no stakes, it's just a bunch of characters performing in a really bad stage play and reducing every conflict to "well I guess Zeus is just dead now because no one's bothering to make an effort to stop Apollo or ask questions lmao"

It's truly the epitome of "this plot wouldn't exist if characters would just talk to each other."

But finally, FINALLY we mention the thing this episode is named after, the transition point to Persephone.

Just like with the midseason finale episode, there's a lot to cover here, so I'm gonna get more into it in a part two post.

That said, you can see already this is the messiest, most contrived bullshit to ever wind up in LO. It's trying so hard to be smart and it just comes across as a bunch of toddlers in the world's worst stage play rendition of Clue. None of what was done here was in any way dramatic or tense, it's just a bunch of characters infodumping shit we already know, trying to set up new plot threads that don't make any sense, and allowing one another to get away with what they're doing because they don't bother to even try.

It's completely manufactured, contrived nonsense. It's not "smart", it's not "so dumb it's brilliant", it's just dumb.

youtube

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #this is the comic that bought two eisners #uh i mean *won* two eisners #... no wait i had it right the first time lmao

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hatt0riart · 11 months

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I WANTED TO MAKE MORE THAN JUST THIS but it took like. a week to get done and im sick these days

anyways in light of mk1's nonsense i revisited some koncepts i had for a roleswap au. i took hanzo's inspiration from a mix of mkx and mk11 outfits and kuai i kind of just winged it based off my own preferences in past appearances!!

more rambling is under the cut about the actual AU :-]

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST MY ART ON ANY OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA OR CROP THEM FOR ICONS. THANK YOU!

SO I HAVE NOT ACTUALLY DEVELOPED THIS BEYOND SOME OLD SKETCHES I HAD OF KUAI'S DESIGN but i had some general ideas of how this was supposed to work???

the shirai ryu is still alive and well! he's still a family man and very clan oriented. satoshi is still born and grows into his clan's responsibilities, however harumi dies in child birth.

the lin kuei on the other hand is Not Doing Well. they end up getting wiped out during a raid from the shirai ryu and most of kuai's immediate family (whether by choice or blood) ends up going down with them.

prior to this kuai ends up passing after a failed mission to retrieve the map of elements from the shaolin temple in an attempt to prove himself to his clan. (instead of bi-han being the one set on that path, kuai ends up taking the initiative instead WAY before he's ready without anyone's knowledge and ends up dying when met with scorpion.)

most of it is similar how it is in actual canon for how scorpion's story goes. he gets resurrected he pledges loyalty to quan chi in order to get revenge, blah blah blah. mortal kombat happens. the two meet again at some point.

kuai's still on that "you killed my family" juice but its...more so about familial ties (like bi-han and smoke) rather than it being the love(s) of his life (like hanzo's wife and son) , seeing as he died young from his own overzealous nature.

very much has anger issues. he's impatient and has alot shorter of a temper by comparison to scorpion in the original canon. hardly ever humbled until that point lol

hanzo on the other hand is surprisingly more lax. meditates often, drinks alot of tea and while he *IS* stressed he handles it alot better than kuai does. maybe has a problem of ignoring his problems though for the sake of the task at hand.

kuai ends up harassing hanzo alot in this AU even outside of the tournament. he's kind of a bitchy ghost there to remind hanzo of what happened to him and lowkey hanzo guilts over it.

kuai has alot of grim reaper motifs in his design. he carries a scythe made of ice primarily and fights at a more long distance range.

hanzo on the other hand is alot more of an up close brawler. he keeps alot of design traits from mkx with a bit of mk11 sprinkled in for inspiration of his "classic" design.

STILL A PYROMANCER!! i just havent thought out how. he's just regarded with a bit more respect for having those unnatural abilities lol

but yeah this is just me spitballing in bullet points. i'm hoping to make more stuff later that is a bit more...thought out properly but it follows more of like

mk mythologies --> mk9 -> mkx

type of timeline i guess? except hanzo is in bi-han's position and kuai ends up being put in scorpion's. bi-han doesn't really have a place in the AU outside of being a background character and driving motive for kuai's vengeance later on. (though we're not gonna talk about how bi-han's mentality eventually fed into kuai's at a young age and made him come to the conclusions he did before he died.... maybe.)

smoke exists for the sake of painful flashbacks lol

satoshi's also a bg character but he does end up growing up with the shirai ryu and takes on his own share of clan responsibilities. idk whether or not he takes after hanzo's pyromancy or not in this AU but either way he grows up to be a well respected figure in the clan!

alot of stuff outside of this remains the same though, just the lin kuei and shirai ryu's dynamics get swapped.

ANYWAYS YEAH IF YOU READ THRU ALL THIS THANKS FOR READING BYEEEE (i'll be adding to this au more later on when i finish my other sketches lol)

#mortal kombat #au #mortal kombat au #mk #mk1 #mkx #mk11 #mk9 #sub zero #scorpion #kuai liang #hanzo hasashi #roleswap au #subscorp #subscorp roleswap au

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hesitantvampirealien · 13 days

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late result of my hand painted jacket

it's been a WHILE since I've finished this, i just had no patience to take pictures of all the little details. My mom took the more "superficial" pictures, like, of the jacket seen from another person's perspective and not so closely. I had to retake one of the photos due to an unfavorable angle

ignore me covering my ugly face with axolotl stickers

lola is so scrunched sorry lola (i don't know why this photo is so low quality, it was hd when i took it but Tumblr refuses to load it in higher quality)

justice to scrunched lola

sides of the sleeves

details from the inside

this is a sketch i made before painting it. Some of the things didn't go into the final product and vice versa (showing this so you know what each thing was originally supposed to be/say)

i scrapped the flags, I didn't know i was aromantic and demisexual at the time but i was already questioning it so i decided to not put it on the jacket seen that the paint was permanent and fixing it was gonna be too much work (+ the fact that those flags would already be too much work for me to draw for being too many colors to mix), i also forgot to add the remaining spikes lol

and NO the crybaby is NOT a melanie reference. It's a reference to Destroy Boys' song 'Crybaby'.

(nothing against melanie though, i really like her album Portals)

#art #artists on tumblr #diy jacket #diy punk #diy #custom jacket #punk #emo #custom clothing #punk fashion

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rox-of-iu · 1 year

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i was looking for my chem notes and instead found a sketch I made back when cultivate chapter 16 dropped.., (this is obviously not the same scene as there, but just something that remained rent free in my head,,, so this is uhhh idk maybe another reunion just later in the future where beloveds figured it all out finally and are more bold haha)

this was originally supposed to be a properly made comic but unfortunately, that is just not feasible at this point in time. but I didn't want to sit on the draft for the next few months or so, so I decided to throw it quickly together to make it a bit more legible and share it as it is haha (and to clarify im not gonna finish it any more than this. most likely. sorry)

the fic is yet once again cultivate by @neonghostcat

if its not clear what its supposed to be (which, fair) its supposed to be the reunion when LQG comes back from CQ but with a twist (ha!) because I'm weak like that for characters doing the spinny spin o(-(

so frame one is LQG standing somewhere nearby the homestead, perhaps the main gate or wherever, and gets spotted by SY who in turn stops in his tracks on his way from the lower terraces, and the rest hopefully is legible enough haha

↓the original sketch that i found + bonus on the right: jokes on SY now that LQG has him snatched he's not letting go. he can work with one hand just fine.

#cultivate #cultivate: slow life on a monster infested mountain #liushen #sorry for the long-ish post lol #i was gonna clean this up at leats a little bit more to make it into a more presentable sketch #but mayhem said to leave it and ok fair #and funnily enough just after that my friend texted mem that there's only 65 days until our maturita exams so HAHA GOOD CALL-#hsjdk cleaning this up wouldnt chnage anything but its a funny coincidence #anyway i know its rough lol but perhaps someone will enjoy the concept haha #anyway neonghostcat if ur reading this by any chance don't feel obligated to reblog this if u don't wanna since its just a messy sketch #so id get it dw haha

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kosmic-kalamity · 4 months

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sorry i died for a few days, i had school + i was sick all week but didn't know it

i'm working on some digital art and some more sketches for my silly trolls au, so for now i'll just share some miscellaneous thoughts i've been having about it:

- in this au, i'm using my own age gap headcanons for the bros. so, at the time of the brozone split, branch was 2; floyd was 13; clay was 14; bruce was 16; and john dory was 19. poppy is 2-3 years younger than branch, and viva is 2 years younger than clay.

- viva has been the acting ruler of pop village since she was 19, king peppy's grief over the lost of poppy leading him to retire early. poppy and branch became co-leaders of the putt-putt trolls when they were 16 and 18 respectively, after the original leader passed and they were deemed best for the job.

- instead of the snack pack being viva's best friends, her relationship with them is a bit more complicated. having found cooper as an egg not long after poppy was lost, he became something of a little brother to her; so, to viva, the rest of the snack pack are both her brother's friends and are kinda like little siblings to her.

- neither clay nor branch sing in this au (at least, not at first), though for different reasons: branch doesn't sing because singing killed his grandma (at least in his mind), and being lost during the escape only worsened his state; clay doesn't sing because, despite having already begun to gain back her colors by the time of the first movie, the lost of her entire family was a wound that never truly healed.

- i've also been considering having branch or poppy being the one kidnapped by velvet and veneer instead of floyd, since both are believed to be dead in this au and i think it would be interesting. should i make the change and have either of these two kidnapped, it'll be the other that goes on the hunt for brozone. so if branch is kidnapped, poppy will be the one to look for his missing brothers; and if poppy is kidnapped, branch will be looking for his brothers to help her.

- speaking of lost siblings, like in canon poppy isn't aware that she has a sister; the only hint of a past she has is an old hug time bracelet she doesn't remember being given to her. branch remembers all of his brothers to varying degrees, the one he remembers most being clay since he'd came back before the tree escape. and clay and viva both know about poppy and branch - their mourning of their lost loved ones helped spark their friendship - but viva isn't aware that clay had other siblings.

- also i'm gonna mention this now so i don't forget, but the reason i haven't talked about floyd, bruce, or john dory all too much for this au is because they remain mostly unchanged. all that really does change is floyd probably not being kidnapped and instead just…doing his own thing. solo career shit yknow. this au is more so centered around clay, branch, poppy, and viva overall.

anyway these are some silly thoughts, and i'm gonna get back to drawing :]

#kosmic.txt #trolls #trolls 3 #trolls band together #trolls branch #trolls clay #trolls viva #trolls poppy #i'm not gonna tag the other bros + the snack pack because they were only mentioned #i really need to name this au at some point but nothing is coming to mind rn #trolls au #what would i even call this au…aughhh #putt pop swap

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not-handsome-enough · 5 months

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Late night doodle page I’m just rambling under the cut

The one with the boxes I adore so much but every time I’ve tried to render it or work on it more I hate it so it will forever remain a sketch

Also Skwisgaar went from being so hard to draw to being up there with murderface with favorite to draw I just keep accidentally erasing the file whenever I draw him 😭 I do a lot of draw and erase so whenever I post it’s just the survivors lmao

Also also ive Seen the winterwonderklok in the tags and also the prompt list and I was gonna do it but then I got distracted making an oc to go with it that I didn’t prepare anything at all 😭

I May do it late cause I like doing these lil events and I missed kloktober and I was gonna do wonderklok originally. Ramble ramble rada rada sorry

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scootsoot · 4 months

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GOD THIS THING KILLED ME (originally i was gonna actually try to replicate the ee artstyle but i gave up after the sketch so only some things remain)

there he is,,, my boy. isn't he wonderful? (please say yes or i will cry /j)

uhhh i know will wood is a musician but like idc he will be the voice of my oc whether he likes it or not

but yea thats all the info that you'll probably ever need about him :3c

(ignore how i forgot to change the original stats,,, uhh they fucked up the quality i think so like just click it to see it better :3 )

#scootsoot #art #artists on tumblr #epithet erased #epithet erased oc #ee #epithet erased art #aster rios

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spacepuppyart · 1 month

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Most of my art attention and energy has been going to the ask blog. So much so that trying to go back to my original style to draw Literally Anything Else is proving to be...difficult.

Nevertheless, just letting my what, 5? Followers? Know that I'm not dead, and I'm working on arts when I can make them. Anything that isn't minecraft related tends to remain as sketches.

i want to try to change my style a bit, so i can have fun with art again instead of it feeling kinda like I HAVE to because if I'm an artist i need to make art. Idk how I'm gonna go about doing that but. We'll see what happens.

All of this to say HEY WOAH HEY LOOK AT MY WIPS

#wip #mun speaks #art #original art #oc #oc art #wip art #art wip #furry #minecraft #wolf furry #fursona #sketch #sketches #digital art

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themichigami · 13 days

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Tiny preview section of a larger project. Forgive me Larroca for I have sinned. My idiot brain decided to taunt me and be like "Hey, remember that one cover art you really REALLY liked and can't find anymore except as tiny jpegs in horrible resolution, or the comic in your own collection? Yeaaah, wouldn't that look awesome poster-sized on your wall? It would, wouldn't it? and you ARE an artist, aren't you, you USED TO do this stuff pretty good... bet you could make that poster yourself, if you wanted to, you washed up old babushka." And so, nine sheets of paper taped together and too many hours staring at a gridded reference picture and insulting myself and whatever remains of my drawing ability, the initial resize sketch exists. it is utter garbage compared to the original, and I am tired. The cat helped a few times so there are extra lines to clean up, and it is missing lots of bits, and screw the details this is not the detail pass this is the "oh god please don't be crosseyed and look like a potato" pass of getting proportions and things in generally the right places so cleanup and actual drawing can be done later. also, gatdamn those face cards yo. Just resizing the cards is gonna take me like two more days to finish, because face cards, and I had to be extra dumb and add the missing parts and a few extra cards to where the original image was cropped for the cover image.

#gambit #remy lebeau #xmen #pencil #sketch #michearts #salvador larocca

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vasyandii · 5 months

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omg I HAVE™️ to know more about Aloke

SCREAMS YAYAYAYAY OKOKOK IM GONNA INFO DUMP ABOUT ALOKE (IM GONNA GIVE YOU AN ENTIRE LIST OF ALOKE INFORMATION)

So this big guy on the left is Aloke, He was originally an oc for a role playing thing my friends on discord but I separated him into his own thing because the server we were on got deleted without warning, so most of this stuff is lost to time.

Here’s some basic stuff to know about him:

He’s born in 800 BC to the Surasena Kingdom (Modern day Uttar Pradesh) the universe he’s in is set around the early 1200s, so he’s around 2000 years old (He just says he’s 40, it’s lore relevant I promise)

Here’s some silly stuff I did for research, or what remains of it xD a lot of crossing out of kingdoms, the languages they spoke, etc. it was really fun to do! I know it would’ve been easier for me to just pick out a random place in the era, but I find it more entertaining to add an extra bit of effort-

He’s 8ft tall, and weighs 1 ton.

He didn’t originally look like this! He was a regular guy before the “Au Gods ™️“ cursed him into what he is

He has legs AND a tail! I thought this idea of having the “fish” Aloke is referenced from be an amalgamation of different things whilst ALSO having a pair of legs is a great way to emphasize what an outcast/otherworldly thing he is :0 (he’s also bioluminescent!)

His backstory (still being workshopped into something more coherent, my little hamster brain can only write so much)

he has had 6 children throughout the centuries! (They’re all deceased by the time the story takes place, but he loves them all very much!) His golden fingernails (scales basically) are a genetic trait all his kids have :D

Aloke has had 20-30 lovers in the past, that may seem like a lot, but this spans to almost 2 millennia

BIG soft spot for kids, being a father, he sees his children in every child

He knows every understandable language under the sun, the guy has a lot of free time lmao

Aloke has traveled everywhere in the ocean and land, but he prefers being on land!

here’s some little concept sketches of what attire he wore in different regions of the world :D

Aloke has territory/ hunting grounds in the ocean! Here’s a map I created for the role playing server (+ a little blurb about his first son)

i think that’s it for what I can find about Aloke, I sadly didn’t keep separate documents on him, or his other lore since the server had his complete information on there :( But thank you for listening to me ramble on about the big fish guy!

Extra sillies of Me being an Absolute BUFFOON

#Oc #original character #oc rambling #art #digital art #artwork #vasya rambles #aloke #Aloke Chitrawal

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cleolinda · 16 days

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Weekend links, April 28, 2024

My posts

I spent the first half of the week struggling through (well-medicated) mania and the second half currently with a sinus infection! I’m not enjoying it! Not either one!

Reblogs of interest

Pro-Gaza protests at universities in the U.S.: a solidarity Passover seder and an accidental Pulitzer photo

Canada Agrees 200 Islands Belong to the Indigenous Haida Nation

The Hot Vintage Lady Polls continue to go for the throat. I felt so bad about Dorothy Dandridge that I started posting and reblogging propaganda for her, but Ava Gardner, my beloved, went through anyway. Backing her felt like a wish on a monkey’s paw ("Not like this!!"). (See all poll results here.) I tremble to think what round 5 will look like. Like, there’s a point when your girl is gonna come up against a Hepburn, you know?

Notably gone this week: Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Lupe Vélez, Irene Papas (who took out Vivien Leigh in the previous round), Gene Tierney, Barbara Stanwyck, Lena Horne, Jean Seberg, Anita Ekberg, Angela Lansbury, and Cyd Charisse. Like I keep saying, everybody loses. Everybody but one. Round 5 will start May 1st.

Hozier Watch 2024: His first U.S. #1, which he’s now playing at shows! The first U.S. #1 for an Irish artist in 34 years! What?? you cry. Did “Take Me to Church” not do that ten years ago? Well, I went and looked it up: No. That was the “Blank Space” era. Say no more.

Speaking of Taylor Swift—Paste Magazine went IN on the new album and got threats as a result. Meanwhile, Taylor’s fans are harassing the ex-boyfriend who did nothing wrong (as opposed to the racist one) because her PR is egging them on. I’ll admit: even though I’m not a fan, I found the Paste review to be overlong and not focused enough on the actual songs, proportionally. But that post about the PR saga is everything I miss about Fandom Wank.

(“My rival dresses to display her legs, and her shoes are of an alluring fashion”)

Meanwhile, the Watcher guys issued the best apology possible, although it was still excruciating to watch. (Background.) They will remain on YouTube while introducing the streaming service. As a Patreon member, I haven’t asked for my free subscription code yet, but I’m going to. Some fans forgave them pretty easily; others have walked away. I’m curious to see if this affects the mood of anything new they film, since a segment of the fandom got really, really ugly about it. Mostly it just felt sad all around.

Meanwhile, in Alabama: nobody wants to measure the feral hog.

Turns out Death Note had a good reason to concoct “American” names like “Bobson Dugnutt.” Also, I somehow had two posts tagged “death note” this week and I don’t even go here.

The worst brownies ever created and what Tumblr has to say about them

“You roll up to the Wizard Battle and your opponent takes out his spellbook but it’s just one of these”

I know that Loki is not Odin’s son in actual Norse mythology, but the bredlik is amazing.

TIL that Florence and Ravenna are still feuding over Dante’s remains

Maybe haunted dolls cost extra

Chorses

Video

Branch manager

Senior branch manager

“Free serotonin from Honey the Italian greyhound”

Sola learned to show love from her humans

I have seen many of jauncydev’s videos about dog personalities, but I have never seen him commit quite this hard before

I like tie-dye videos anyway, but this one is sick as hell

The sacred videos: you are not prepared for this police sketch, and neither is this news anchor

The sacred texts

Kick his ass, baby. I got yo flower.

Gold Star, You Tried: A compilation

A personal favorite: “mayhaps I TWIMST aroumd”

The origin of “By Talos this can’t be happening”

Personal tags of the week

Seasonally: cherry blossom. Also, art: an old standby, but it was really good, and also, I’m sick.

#weekend links #odds and ends #linkspam

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rockybloo · 9 months

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About that Nova and Pluto height difference picture (this is gonna be a long post y'all)

I deleted the picture I drew of Nova and Pluto kissing on every one of my social medias save for Tumblr because people have been expressing their discomfort with how Nova looked like a child compared to Pluto who looked like a fully grown adult.

And I completely understand all the upset reactions since Pluto makes everyone look way more tiny than they truly are. It definitely didn't help that I was being lazy when I sketched and lined everything since I dread full bodies sometimes and tried to cheat by hiding most of Nova's with her big gamer jacket.

So that, mixed with Nova's height in comparison to Pluto, and me not focusing more on her anatomy led to a picture that, if you are already familiar with the characters, looks cute and fluffy. But if you are new to them, looks a lot less cute and more gross.

After talking to a friend as well as a mutual about the picture, I decided that deleting it and fleshing Nova's design out more would be the best.

Unlike Jack, Nana, Sweetheart, and Bitterbat, I've been slacking on drawing Nova and Pluto. And the latter couples have had whole make-overs and an established way I draw them that makes my brain go "YEP THIS WORKS". But Nova and Pluto have been neglected in my head so I haven't been updating their looks alongside my art style like I have been with the others. Which means I still draw them based off the designs I made of them back in like-2020 or 2021???

BASICALLY THEY'VE BEEN LONG OVER DUE FOR SOME TINKERING.

Specifically Nova. Pluto I am very happy with. But Nova's design needs more lovin' in it.

I won't be completely overhauling her since I love her current look-I just want to do a better job at her design.

When I first designed Nova and Pluto, they were meant to be based off retro anime designs for a cute girl and handsome boy (even though Pluto is nonbinary). Sadly, cute anime girls often look very less mature than their male counterparts and so Nova suffers the same problem by default. I also wanted Nova to stand out from my other adult female characters and have her lack the same amount of curves and basically be flat.

This is something I will still be keeping because the idea that "curves=adult" is genuinely a shitty concept. Same as "short=child" since there are PLENTY of shorties out there that are grown adults. I am one of them-it's why I keep making my girls so short. I need some representation down here 😭.

When it comes to Nova's current default outfit-I will technically still be keeping her gamer jacket in her wardrobe closet but I'll be giving her a new jacket that will serve to be her new default one that shows her build more so she won't look so "childish" compared to Pluto. It'll help to avoid a repeat situation (I hope) as well as solve my constant frustration at having to cover up good ass anatomy with clothing (I DO IT ENOUGH TO JACK-I PLAYED MYSELF WITH NOVA'S JACKET)

OVERALL-Nova just needs the same love I gave to Nana and Sweetheart when they went through their original tinkers.

I will continue to draw Nova and Pluto together because I care about them and their story a lot. But with the themes that occur in the story and the relationship Nova and Pluto have together, it's definitely important that I make sure that cat girl looks more like a cat woman in future art I draw of her.

As for why I didn't delete the Tumblr post of the original picture-this entire site is an internet archive which means if someone reblogs something from someone, and then that someone deletes the original post, the reblog doesn't go down with it and remains. So it'd be useless to delete it. I just settled for turning reblogs off.

In the future I definitely want to redraw the picture but I'll hold off until I give Nova the touch ups she very much deserves.

#rocky rambles #important rockypost

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wodania · 7 months

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For the favorite clothing ask I’d have to say EVERYTHING is my favorite! Though I will narrow it down to a FEW pieces:

- Basically anything with the Northmen/First Men (ESPECIALLY the earrings which may be slightly from my adoration of statement earrings in fashion).

- Daenys the Dreamer (which 1. You have superb taste in music 2. I could stare at your design of her for hours if I was able too😄).

- Younger Egg (where one was him as king and the other as a prince, especially the one of him with the shorter hair. I could picture him looking like that when he’s growing it back from his adventures with Dunk😊😊).

- As well as the Connington family art (particularly Young Griff’s outfit: he looks like just another Connington like that🥺/it’s also hard for me to view it since I just want to wrap him in a blanket and keep him safe with his dad at Griffin’s Roost forever😭🥺🥺).

I just enjoy how you design characters if you can’t tell (when picturing the characters I can only see your designs now😄🫶🫶)!

(original lyanna piece)

(original betha piece)

(original arya piece)

(original rhaelle piece)

Some earrings!!! These originally started off as beaded, but I’ve since played with a sort of stitched(?) style with beaded ornaments. I’ve been playing around with more northern fashion on the side, I just need to get good at making patterns before you can truly see what I’m capable of!

(original daenys piece)

Omg this one was the blueprint for all of my Targaryen designs since, I still love it. I’d love to do a sketch featuring the full outfit, since I adore the shape and fabrics (to try to describe it, the red robe is only on her torso, the black dress continues down all the way to her feet. If she were to remove the robe, the dress would be sleeveless).

About the music, I was top 0.5% of Florence fans last year and I am determined to remain in that rank 🫶 adore her so much

(original egg piece)

I wanted to draw Egg in more regal attire, since hes only ever really depicted in simple tunics and shirts as a child. Funny you mention the hair, because I was just making a note that Egg wore his hair shorter in the years following his time with Dunk! In my mind, he wears his hair shorter until around his late twenties or so (you can see the shorter hair in my most recent piece too).

(original connington piece)

Aegon has always been more of a Connington than any other family to me 🫶 I like using tartans and kilts with Stormlander designs whenever I can, so I like implementing them in Aegon’s design as well! I’d like to redesign some Aegon outfits keeping the more regal Targaryen vibe mixed with the Connington colours someday! One of these days I’m gonna sit down and just do a bunch of costume designs for you guys I promise 😭

Also the comment about you picturing my designs when you read: I literally sent a screenshot of that to my friends bc I was so happy tysm 😭

#my asks

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delunesnumberonefan · 1 month

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saskia and belialah. the empress and her shadow.

...im breaking my own rule of not posting any more original creations here but idgaf---i'll post some sketches and if there's interest i can throw this fic i'm working on up on ao3 for the monsterfuckers in the audience

so, backstory on THESE TWO:

i'm gonna go in real life order of events and talk about some of the inspos that went into some of these moments and where they were in our real life timeline of Experiencing these two

under the cut bc i must remain polite in the face of my hyperfixations

HELLO I MAY BE POLITE BUT IM RABID LETS GOOOOOOOOO

ok so, canonical order of events: saskia (matriarch) and belialah (demon lord) meet, they establish an alliance, belialah does stuff for saskia. at some point, saskia starts amassing her generals (we'll get there) and chooses belialah. somewhere in here as well, saskia splits from the empire and starts doing her Evil Deeds for her Evil Plans. I'm not sure which of the last two came first. in either case, lost later meets belialah, we haven't seen her (physically) since (but that's not a good thing i don't think)

irl order of events:

Saskia throws a Fit, kills her nephew, and withdraws from the empire at large. we make fun of her because though she's the big bad, she's also weirdly wet and pathetic. we hate her. she's so sucks. and also so sexy. its bad

time goes by, things happen, eventually there's a big party with all the matriarchs!!! yaaaaay

lost and gilt go because ofc we do, and there's a big dance where everyone keeps changing partners. at the end of the dance, lost gets belialah

...elven ish woman. obviously weird. too pale skin. black hair. disheveled appearance. ill-fitting dress. holds herself weird. talks with a tremble and a breathiness to her voice that immediately makes us uncomfortable (my mans can do some fuckin VOICES and don't get me started on the sound effects). belialah says she's a huge fan---of lost's father. the being from before creation whose whole thing is "immortal life but not in the good way" instead of "you won't die" it's "you can't die" there is no death to escape from life, no matter the suffering.

so--red flags.

she tells lost that she's one of saskia's generals, and that saskia sent her to give lost a message: saskia is so excited for her to come home, and that lost should bring her brothers (6 beings of various otherworldly heritage like lost--saskia has a type and it is monsters) when she comes home. Lost tells her to tell saskia, from her and gilt, to fuck off.

belialah goes...monstrous. red eyes start popping open all over her skin and she gets quiet and threatening about how lost is disrespectful and how--yeah, she will tell saskia that. and she leaves in a cloud of black vapor

i turn to chase. i say "oh they're fucking"

and he hits me with "...belialah would probably like to!"

and i hit the ground running. sprinting. i was off into the distance without another fucking word. little roselyn-shaped dust cloud left behind.

fic. art. works. stuff. so much. headcanons. throwing everything at the wall. attempts at first time. attempts at canon. saskia bitchiness. belialah wanting to smash despite the great danger to her personal health. weird fetish fic. modern!au. headcanons about modern!au. deep dives. analysis. narrative foils. sex. so much sex.

it's everything. they're everything

i want them to be terrible together. that's all i want. that's all i've ever wanted.

i set about creating for them in a frenzy--it's been love and war time for...since early may of last year?? some coming up on a year, now (again---150k words written in this time, with april's word count unknown but already above 10k. jan ALONE was 32k). love and war time means that it's always love and war--it's just different people inside the campaign. oh it's saskia oh it's freya it's gilt and lost let's bop over to adele what about gilt's parents-

FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR

it's been great.

Chase messaged summer and i a few weeks ago like "hey. i got a belialah meeting saskia inspo video, but i need to show you in person bc i need to get your reaction live."

he showed me this

we had a moment of "...oh my god its from a gacha game?" and then i made him play it three times in a row just Absorbing the vibes

chase: it's saskia and belialah when they first meet, with belialah thinking she has the upper hand and saskia proving that she is very, very wrong. but i don't know what a ball in the abyss looks like...

me: say no more

and i hit upon them meeting at an event where it's basically like---demons from all over gather, have a civil time---when bloodshed eventually happens (which it always does bc they're literal actual demons) it's a free for all and it's expected to be a bloodbath, that's part of the appeal

belialah's there, as you do, and saskia's there to talent scout from the pool of winners for her big evil plans. belialah's like "wtf is a stupid little mortal doing here why are you unaccosted where is your collar" kinda behavior and goes over there, they talk, they dance (also a ploy for power among demons, it's a sizing up thing instead of a fun thing), saskia reveals that she's got 1/8th of the power of a god in her soul and belialah's like "cool im fanatically devoted to you now i've never wanted to smash a mortal before can we make out"

and that's how they start their history

with me writing books about this campaign (again--pipe dream) i've been deciding on when and where i want these two to get highlighted, bc, again---we've never met saskia in person, she's spoken to lost and gilt directly once, and we've seen belialah once outside of saskia's bitchy announcement to the empire at large where she reveals she's got 12 generals and you better not try shit bc we're at WAR now (she's stupid i love her dearly)

and recently i've been working on their...first time? an epilogue for one of the books. the actual thing won't have sex in it if it gets to be part of the book for realsies, but im not stopping there bc IM ME

and i've been tinkering with like...ok how do we show in isolated little epilogues and snippet scenes that saskia and belialah have INSANE sexual tension so that when they do get together, its weird but satisfying bc again---belialah is a demon. she's got a human form. that is not her true form. i've drawn it, it's sexy to saskia, i'll post it soon.

but i need these two to snark at each other with saskia resisting belialah's advances bc "im trying to take over the world stop distracting me" while belialah's like "SASKIA LEMME SMASH. PLEASE" until eventually it happens because they're terrible and i love them and it needs to happen, frankly. im overruling my boyfriend. at the point we are at, they are fucking already. he does not have a choice. im overruling him.

chase, if you're reading this--the goal with this first time fic is to make it plausible enough that you accept it as canon. thank you.

bc like--they're terrible. they're perfect. they've both got bratty younger sibling/cocky hotshot who thinks they're invincible kinda energy and belialah has no doubt in her mind that saskia can achieve her goals and saskia is getting someone who will stroke her ego and is having the thought of "im being recognized for how amazing i am it's about time"

the generals have made deals with saskia---saskia is planning on following through with 0% of these deals. belialah is the only one who didn't--she's here by saskia's side of her own free will.

they're fucking. at this point, they are fucking. decades of sexual tension kept alive by distance and "hello old friend" energy is suddenly coming to head with Belialah Always Being Around and saskia having to plan out her evil deeds with her being nutso devoted 24/7 and listen, man. this woman has an ego the size of the planet. she's gonna smash someone who inflates her ego, it's just how she works

ok lore dump over. sketch time now.

#roselyn talks #love and war #saskia tag #belialah tag #the empress and her shadow #i am. Unwell.#these two make me Unwell

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