Because I Needed a Suppression Fanblog

Fallingfeather's Suppression fanblog.

[overflowchute]

I have no heart and I have no soul. The only thing within me is a sort of horrible viscous tar, which churns about quietly as my memories and emotions are processed and nutrients are reconnected with one another. But I do have a liver.

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

*Sad Trombone Noise* That’s all, folks

I’m just going to go ahead and put my whole entire thoughts about the end of Suppression under the cut because no one who came to this blog for fun times should have to read that.

So, we have an answer to the age old question: Can producing copious amounts of fanart and commentary on a webcomic keep it alive?

No. It can’t. ....Still tried, though!

PART ONE: WHAT I THINK OF THE COMIC ENDING

For the record: I hope none of this comes off as callous or blunt. I’m just kind of stating things as they come to me, and I promise I’ll be getting to some real mushy stuff by the end. Y’all should know that I have NOTHING but respect for Deg and Suppression, and I am in no way mad or resentful or anything like that. You’ll never see that kind of negativity out of me, and creators should always do what’s best for them, ESPECIALLY with unpaid projects. Like, duh!

That being said, I’m not as sad about this as I thought I would be... but that’s because I think I got my grief out of the way several months back. I’ve been following webcomics for a very, VERY long time (since 2007-ish?) and I’ve come to recognize a lot of ‘symptoms’ of when a creator is losing steam and getting ready to give up the ghost on a creative project. Missed updates, vocalizing a lack of inspiration, switching things up with a different format to try and shake things up a bit... These aren’t uncommon. Seriously, this is all stuff that comics like Poppy O Possum, Monster Pop, Cucumber Quest, and a million other cancelled webcomics have done months or weeks before they were cancelled. Hell, Paranatural is circling that drain right now (though that is mostly due to the author’s considerable wrist injuries). I have DOZENS of webcomics on my RSS feed, I know the signs.

So when I saw the slowed down updates, the switch to a different format, and the “would you guys read other stories by me if I ever stopped doing Suppression...?” all within relatively short succession, I was like “Aw shit, here we go.” I was really hoping it wouldn’t happen, but... I’m also not surprised that it did. The writing’s been on the wall, it was just a matter of WHEN, but I wasn’t about to encourage it, so I just kind of kept an eye on it and... yeah.

Plus, the internet has been growing increasingly hostile to independent webcomics in the attempt to centralized it with things like webtoons and tapastic (both of which I HATE, fuck instascrolling comics let me flip pages). You really have to be in a collective like hiveworks or spiderforest (the latter of which is GREAT for smaller artists with nonetheless long/consistent archives) to accrue new fans nowadays unless you have a solid social media presence. I found Suppression via Deviantart back in the day! This is because no one even thinks to LOOK for these sorts of things anymore or even knows how. And that sucks! And I hate it! But I get it! But that’s probably why no one noticed the comic was back, unfortunately. :/ I did my best to help with that, obviously posting a TON about it on my own blog, trying to lure folks in with neat fanart, but... it’s clear it didn’t amount to much. I’m not a popular artist.

And really, I’m not THAT upset about the comic being shelved! (Ok I am upset but I’m not going to pitch a fit, I’m a grownass woman.) Suppression has been happening for... a VERY long time. The original comic GOT a conclusion, if a bittersweet one! There’s like, 600 pages of content there! That is a BEEFY library of stuff! It’s kind of hard to say “it died too young!” when its over a decade old. And like... I can’t bring myself to punish ANYONE for wanting to try other ideas, I just hope there are other ideas! I’d certainly hate for this to be the last anyone hears of Degulus in general. I really, genuinely can’t wait to see what comes next!

PART 1.5: OH WOW LOOK AT THAT STORY MAP, OOPS I DIDN’T WRITE ENOUGH FOR THIS TO BE A PROPER PART

I’m also really happy to hear where the story WAS going to go though! Though holy shit, Iggy. Based on his position as one of the last uninfected humans in the last story who was really good at staying that way, hearing about that is. Uh. Horrifying. 

Plus, if Charlie was one of Azgrut’s friends when Arrie made everything go to shit, and was then on Merry’s expedition... no wonder he hates her AND Wights. Dude just can’t catch a fucking break.

I do still have SOME questions, but I’ll leave that until the end.

PART 2: WHY DID I EVEN LIKE THIS COMIC ANYWAY

I guess though, I should go into why I always liked this comic because I don’t think... I’ve ever said that before? Individual characters yes, but not the comic as a whole. This is the kind of self reflection I’m a little self conscious about because it says as much about ME as the comic, but I hope none of this comes off as mean or weird. It’s just... what I like. Suppression might be a stew when you’re looking for a sandwich, but if you’re saying that you can’t slap soggy meat onto bread and say it’s good, you’ve never had a sloppy joe.

First of all; I LOVE comics with huge ensemble casts and a lot of overlapping plot threads. I feel like a lot of other stories with smaller casts can be more boring because each character has to play a specific role to make the story “work” as opposed to just. Being themselves. You know, like the 5 man ensemble where there HAS to be a leader, a lancer, a bruiser, a girl, and a “funny one”. And things similar to that. This comic doesn’t have that necessarily- nobody’s necessarily fitting a role, or if they do they’re wildly different explorations on similar positions, such as how the Wights are all evil necromancer folk but with differing opinions on what it means to be like that, or how the different infected people respond to the new demonic part of themselves. Each person feels like a PERSON with their own fleshed out opinion, and when someone acts in a different way than expected, you know its because of their own personal thoughts and opinions and not because that’s the part of the story where x event needs to happen so y can occur in act 3.

Like... Iggy not leaving Ebon Creek even though Trevor thought he totally would. Like in an ordinary story, that’s what would happen! Ok its season two, time to pack up and go to a new setting with the main characters! ...Except that’s not what Iggy wants, and anyone who’s been paying attention to his character would know that. This also leads to really interesting reactions and events when very disparate characters are shoved into the same room, and its very likely for that to happen considering how weirdly events can go! I love that! I mean shit, Arrie and Sam as best friends? Who would have guessed, but its great!

And yes, the characters were fantastically written! I LOVE the snappy, snarky dialogue in this comic and how nobody takes ANYTHING lying down. Every single character drives the story along instead of just letting things be left to chance, and it really leaves me on the edge of my seat wondering what’s going to happen next. Who cares if the story meanders a bit? Its about the journey, not the destination, and the journey is rad as fuck. (But uh... I can easily see as a creator why its easy to get frustrated with the story feeling like it never GOES anywhere. That’s valid.) And the fight scenes! My god I love to see these people hit each other! The weird power combinations lead to some REALLY entertaining stuff.

I really enjoyed the settings too- both of them! Urban fantasy is one of those things that I usually find... uh... a little boring. Like, I see so many of them go “Ok its the exact same regular boring world except hey look someone can do a wizard thing”. There’s no attempt to make a cool aesthetic, or think too hard about how it changes things and WHY the world would seem completely normal except With Wizards This Time, and it leaves me yawning a bit. Suppression has always been a breath of fresh air in that regard! There’s so much effort put into developing that neat DARK urban fantasy aesthetic, with the cultural implications that entails. Ebon Creek as the magical equivalent of a nuclear disaster, and the Rings in the reboot as the last island of “normalcy” in an apocalyptic world that’s slowly encroaching closer. That’s awesome, and it really ties into what the character are actually doing instead of just being aesthetic window dressing.

I also love Suppression’s art style. Which was a hard sell for most people I tried to show it to, unfortunately (and oh my god did I TRY). BUT the character models show off the characters’ most distinctive traits and general body types while also leaving a lot of room for interpretation for what they’d look like as “real” people. Room... for say... an aspiring fanartist to just sidle herself into with hot takes like “Iggy is a scarecrow but no one can tell because of the baggy clothes”. The art style also leaves just enough room for goofy faces AND implied really nasty body horror! Doesn’t get much better! Not to mention its just so damn different from everything else out there. A much appreciated breath of fresh air! Its fun!

PART 3: WHAT NOW

So uh yeah, that’s why I liked Suppression so much! So... what does this mean for me? Will I keep posting fan art? Uh... mmmmaybe? P... Probably not? Don’t get me wrong, my love of these characters isn’t going anywhere. And there’s a lot more I still wanted to do- more of the ‘furries’ series (featuring Grenner as a possum right off the bat), or an AU “journal” series that would show what teh original Ebon Creek crew would look like if they went off the deep end, fully demonic. But I’m shelving those now as well. Without new content (or even the promise of it, which is why I kept going before the reboot started), I get the feeling I’d either:

A. Get sick of it, as I’d be constantly retreading old ground. B. Look absolutely pathetic, beating a long dead horse.  C. Get so tied up in embarrassing AUs that it’d cease to be recognizable as being from the same comic anymore.

Frankly, I’m not looking forward to any of that happening. Not to mention, admittedly, part of the reason why I MADE all that fanart was because the first time I did it, I made those profile paintings as the payoff to a longstanding promise. I said I’d give Deg fanart a decade ago. He made a MASSIVE reference sheet of his characters as a result. I said “Wow, I’ll get on that fanart soon!” And then nothing happened, and then I felt bad about it when I remembered years later.

So many, many years too late I made some fanart, FULLY expecting the reboot to never happen, and got? A really positive response about it? So duh, I made more fanart knowing that it was helping and contributing to the story planning and direction. Wouldn’t you know it, getting a positive response and engagement with your art makes you make MORE art, who knew! It was a lot of fun! But... I don’t want to keep making fanart and pushing Suppression if it’s decided that its not happening, because that feels a lot like a guilt trip when the audience is this small. Hell, it already felt a lot like that when I was making more fanart for the old timeline rather than the reboot one simply because I knew the characters better. So I might do a couple things for fun or if I’m practicing a new technique, but certainly not at my old volume.

I’d much rather wait around until we get tentative news of something else and then immediately lob fanart at whatever THAT is.

I’m definitely not deleting this blog though, lol.

And I guess... I should tryyyy developing/putting some of my own original stuff up more? I usually don’t bother than much because it doesn’t get much of a response, but I should still try more.

PART 4: IF YOU WANT TO CONTACT ME

(Also, Degulus- if you’re reading this, I’d be happy to DM you my discord handle if you wanted to keep in touch and/or chit chat about other things? I promise I’m a normal person outside of the art dumps.)

(Also to anyone else who’s looking at my stuff- my main blog is fall1ngfeather and my art blog is fallingfeatherart. I’m not leaving tumblr any time soon.)

PART 5: HEY SO WHAT WAS UP WITH THAT

SO, now that that’s all out of the way, here’s some of the questions that have just been sitting here burning in my mind that I might as well get out now:

1. What the FUCK is Santris’s deal. Or was his deal in the preboot timeline, seeing as he never showed up in reboot. I’ve avoided asking this question for a long time because I didn’t actually want to know. I LOVE Santris’s position in the story as “dude who freaks everyone out by virtue of being too damn normal”, and being “mysterious” was his whole shtick so I didn’t want to ruin it for myself by asking. But I am now, dammit.

2. Did Sam know that Merry both found and then lost the Heart of Adigard? Was Arrie ever... filled in on that? Or was it more Merry and Alaster went missing for a couple weeks, came back looking like shit, and when Sam asked what the hell happened they were just like “Oh. You know. Stuff.” Cuz it seems like if Arrie was interested in that, Sam and by extension Meredith would be the first people she would want to ask!

3. Why did Bael opt to puppet around Iggy instead of just... following along on his own? He’s just kind of a shitty fighter without someone to control? No one liked him but he still wanted in? Iggy was being a dick and was like “OH YEAH? WHAT IF I DO THIS.” and just lived in his body for a couple weeks?

4. Where can I keep up with whatever you’re doing now? Twitter? Or something?

5. Who were the people that Sigvaldi was chit chatting with at the end of the preboot timeline after he left the universe? People outside the normal story no doubt, but I was never sure WHO, exactly. Though considering that again, they’re outside the narratives this may end up being similar to the Santris question where “If it’s relevant in the future, don’t tell me”.

6. Actually what was Charlie’s deal in the reboot too. Was he still a big bag of ghosts or what. Could you imagine taking your friend on a big adventure and he goes scouting or whatever and comes back stuffed full of So Many Ghosts. That would suck but also be kind of funny.

7. Were there models or concept art for anything made that you didn’t show off before that you want to now that there’s nothing stopping you?

8. What is the heart of adigard anyway. I mean clearly its a Big Fucking Deal, but what did it DO exactly?

9. Which character was your favorite. You’ve gotta have one. My best friend’s favorite is Sigvaldi just from what I told him about the comic and I want to say mine is Iggy but its probably secretly Arthur. :C Fuckin asshole, stealing my “favorite character” slot.

10. Favorite scene from the whole comic? Just something that made you go “Oh HELL yeah” to pull off/get to.

11. Did Max ACTUALLY stop existing and just got folded in with Arthur, or was he going to pop up somewhere down the line as a gotcha?

Ok I’ll stop asking questions now and I’ve been writing this for several hours so BYEEE Y’ALL IT WAS A FUN RIDE!

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

In my defense, I was literally asked.

So, I have actually been asked about my LGBTQ+ headcanons for Suppression. I shall now recite from my massive, ancient textb- ok no, I’m kidding, Iggy was my most detailed one, but here’s some others I’ve been kicking around under the cut:

So first and foremost, I want to be clear: There doesn’t have to be a REASON to make someone gay or transgender of asexual or whatever. There is no reason for these things in real life after all, people just are. You can be a rocket scientist or a wrestler or a pigeon breeder and just happen to be someone who was assigned a different gender at birth as well. It happens. That’s not to say that there isn’t a culture and some common trends that go along with it, but the point I’m trying to make is that just because I’m noting my favorite characters to think these sorts of things about here, you could literally make ANYONE LGBT. There’s no checkboxes you have to tick before you get your lesbian license.

...but if there was, Sam would have like 3 of them.

ANYWAY so yeah that’s the first one: 1. Everyone is gay and transgender. All of them. All at the same time. Figure it out.

Also, even if any of these WERE canon, I wouldn’t expect it to come up very often either? Suppression is a very action based comic, I don’t think there’s a lot of downtime for characters to be like “ANYWAY, I’m going on a date with ANOTHER GUY this Wednesday because that’s HOW I ROLL.” Because that would be. Weird. Still, sometimes an offhand mention can go a long way.

To organize this a little bit better though, I’m going to split it into “Characters who I think could or should be X, Y, and/or Z” and “Characters where I wouldn’t do that unless a lot of effort was put into pulling it off well.” Personal dos and don’ts, pretty much.

For characters who I think are or could be LGBT, well, like I said, it’s fun to imagine just about anyone, and I think making a character some type of LGBT can add a really fun element to someone that ordinarily would be a little bit boring. In this case though, I’m expressing only my thoughts on the ones that either have some sort of written element that could be taken as supporting my headcanon, or ones where I think it would play well with their pre-established traits and desires. So, without further ado:

1. Samantha Wight is a lesbian, in both continuities but ESPECIALLY the reboot, god. I think this one is most obvious when you compare the version of her that existed in the preboot timeline in comparison to the reboot. And for that, I’ve got to talk about the Wights a bit, or at least as how they were in the preboot. 

They come off to me as… well, deeply repressed, unhappy, and (let’s be honest, most likely) very conservative people. They all want something out of life and want to be proud of themselves and their family, but are so deadlocked in trying to “maintain the family tradition and honor” and whatnot that they end up dragging each other back down into that depressive pit. There’s plenty of examples of this; Alaster is very proud of being a Wight and their traditions of burning and pillaging, but hates what his family has become and how they treat each other. He tries very hard to be a good role model for his younger relatives even though he’s unable to get out from under his father’s thumb himself. Meredith is incredibly enthusiastic (and gifted!) about her family’s magic traditions and history but is constantly facing snotty, belittling remarks about how airheaded she is from Samantha. In addition, it’s clear her dad and uncle don’t understand her in the slightest, let alone have a shred of respect for her (or if they do, it's for her use as a resource or tool and not as a person with her own merits). Jericho thinks the Wights are already great, but is increasingly frustrated with the fact that his beliefs mean absolutely nothing in the wider world and he doesn’t actually have the power to do anything about it. Heck, even Arthur had a line that implied a LOT about how he and Max were raised- how he didn’t really want to be a necromancer, but picked it so he could “get out of what Dad had (Max) doing”. It gives off the impression that no matter how powerful a Wight you are, your life gets set in stone at birth and you aren’t changing it, no matter how hard you try, and those traditional roles are HARSH. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alaster wasn’t the only Wight that got quietly offed when they stepped out of line, that’s for sure. 

Needless to say, I would imagine it would be pretty much impossible to come out as anything in that sort of environment… provided that you managed to get out enough to learn about that stuff to start with. And Sam definitely appears to be one of the worst victims of this. She died really young. While Meredith and Alaster might have gotten to go to a public school or at least hit the mall every once in a while, she probably spent every second since the day she died locked up in the mansion because… well, zombies aren’t supposed to exist. Unable to go anywhere, do anything of value, make any friends… it’s really no wonder her nihilism cranked up to 11 in just a decade or so. Not to mention (especially in comparison to the reboot), there’s no way she can buy her own clothes, so she’s literally just a Wight themed dress up doll. She has the Wight family logos literally all over her- bones in her dress, the skull on her head and shoes, a Wight crest on her necklace, most of them oversized for her stature. Literally weighing her down in a poofy dress that makes her look adorable instead of practical. Heck, she’s even drawn in a way depicts how she’s had her agency removed. She’s a Wight, so she definitely HAS the sharp pointy teeth, and yet unlike everyone else in her family you barely ever see them. (If at all- I’m pretty sure you don’t, but I’m not going to go through every page she appears to check.) She’s literally defanged and weighed down by family expectations. It’s no wonder she lashes out at Meredith, who is capable of actually expressing herself to a degree. 

(Also, a smaller side headcanon- I’ve noticed that while the red eyed fangy icon is the Wight family crest, those simplified skulls on Samantha and Meredith’s heads appear a lot as well. I like to think that those were the family crest of Nora’s now extinct bloodline from when she married into the Adigard family. Even though they aren’t the official Wight crest, they’re now considered a sort of secondary crest that’s still carried around out of respect to the maternal lineage, which is why you see it more prominently on the women of the family as well. Is there any textual support for this? No, none, but it’s still fun to think about.)

SO YEAH, Sam in the reboot, wow. Goes by a (notably more gender neutral) nickname instead of the longer and more formal “Samantha”, with her clothing following. Jeans and a t-shirt. Square glasses. Very short hair. The family symbols are now not dragging her down, but smaller accents that she wears to go with her outfit instead of defining it. She’s finally free! She has a job she likes. She takes pride in her skills. She has a favorite sandwich spot and a college education and friends. ...And like, maybe a girlfriend? It would be nice. This is admittedly because her style of hair and dress is… well. Kinda butch. But like I’ve mentioned before, physical appearance is one of the last indicators I like to go for with this. Instead, I prefer to look at it in terms of her personality- outside of the deathgrip of outdated family tradition, Sam can afford to be herself more, and yeah, maybe that involves dating folks with the same gender and wearing blue jeans. This is also kinda supported to a degree by how her siblings haven’t changed that much since the old timeline. Merry’s outfit is pretty much the exact same. Jericho doesn’t have the biohazard suit, but his new outfit still kinda evokes it in the hat, long coat, and boots. He still seems to prefer the same styles, at least. Alaster is pretty different, but that’s more because he’s wearing a uniform more than anything, and with the bandages it’s clear he’s still putting his own personal spin on it. Sam is COMPLETELY different, and it’s a change for the better and happier. So yeah. It would be really fitting if part of that new access to personal freedom was in getting to explore her sexuality as well, and eventually settling down into being a lesbian. It would be a happy ending to Samantha’s story, even Sam’s is only getting started.

2. Arrie is bisexual! What? Who do you think it is that Sam’s dating? But yeah, I ship them pretty hard. Like Sam, Arrie has some pretty big personality differences between her preboot self and current self, Parrios vs. Tinderbolt. Old Arrie seemed to be well versed in politics, able to negotiate and take charge easily even if she was a bit overly formal and her interpersonal skills weren’t QUITE up to snuff. That’s not to say that she couldn’t have been bi, but I also didn’t read her as vibing with anyone all that well. 

Not to turn this into a massive shipping discussion (as that’s not really the topic I’m trying to cover here), but I saw her most interesting potential romantic foils as Trevor and Sally… but neither of them were very likely in practice. She and Trevor were good friends but the last time they spoke in the comic he stuck his own foot in his mouth with her and they never got the opportunity to work things out after that (and even then, there was no sort of… spark implying that they would make each other better as a couple. Seriously, just friends.), which leaves that ship on a particularly sour note. And while she and Sally were FANTASTIC counterparts to each other (rough and tumble demon girl and overly formal and technical elf princess? Sally getting her to slowly loosen up and have fun with it a bit while also reminding her how much her one liners suck? Arrie coming to impress her and earn her respect with fancy spellwork? Hell yeah.), but they only spent maybe an hour tops with each other and didn’t have any opportunity for deeper conversation. Also, that would mean that Sally and Bael wouldn’t be a thing and I refuse to break that couple up.

But Arrie in the reboot? Oh man. Her social awkwardness and getting stuck on details have really been dialed up now that she’s essentially been raised in a classroom and in private study instead of being trained as a politician and dignitary.  She’s no longer a princess, but a magic computer programmer. She’s anxious, stubborn, and definitely has a lot of room to grow. But, that’s where Sam comes in. They’ve known each other since they were little- they definitely know each other’s baggage and have accepted it. They know each other’s hopes and dreams. They spend a ton of time with each other. And yeah, they bring out the best in each other. Sam gets Arrie to leave her room once in a while, and Arrie’s attention to detail means she no doubt always listens to Sam complain long after anyone else would have tuned it out. And yes, you could easily interpret this as mere best friend territory, but wouldn’t it be interesting if it was something more? After all, Sam is really touchy-feely with Arrie even though she’s normally standoffish. She drapes herself all over Arrie in the early pages of the comic, and Arrie barely blinks. Sam threatens to drag her and Arrie is suddenly done with her work, but they’re both smiling about it. Similarly, when Arrie finally pries Sam off of her with magic, Sam just lets Arrie toss her around midair even though they both know she could use it offensively (which Arrie does when tussling with Sally later.). But they both know Arrie would never do that- they trust each other implicitly. Again, could just be friendship, but it’s not difficult to read into it and see a bit more intimacy than that. Additionally, it would really be neat to see them together just from an angle of “Their families used to be bitter enemies, but… well, not for these two, I guess.”

Also, it’s really funny to imagine a copy of that first scene but Sam’s in fancy clothing trying to drag Arrie to their anniversary dinner. For god’s sake Arrie, you’re already in the dress. The runes look FINE. You’re going to miss your reservation, get UP.

(And on another headcanon side-note- If I was going to cosplay as anyone in the comic, it would 100% be Arrie, if just because I have blonde hair and blue eyes and none of her outfits look too crazy to sew and it's not that hard to find elf ears online. With current circumstances though, I don’t think I’ll be doing anything like that any time soon.)

3. Charlie is agender or genderfluid, at least in the preboot timeline. This is less “it just feels right” and more “this is probably the inevitable conclusion of having hundreds of souls with conflicting gender identities stuffed into one body.” He is made up of boys, girls, and people who never got to have enough of a personal identity to make a decision about that sort of thing. Just a big bag of angry ghosts. Considering what happens in the approximate… like… what, six to nine months or so? That he gets to exist, I don’t think he really thought about what gender he was all that hard and probably only went with “he” because that’s what everyone who met him assumed he was. Which, let’s be honest, he’s canonically very emaciated, has long, probably matted hair, and probably has heavily stunted growth due to his upbringing- I think it would actually be pretty hard to figure him out on first glance. I’ve just noticed that people tend to default to “this is a dude” if they don’t know right away. If he had time to think about it though, I think he either a. Honestly would not give a crap, or b. Would just switch his pronouns around depending on how he was feeling that day. Heck, while “Charles” is definitely a guy’s name, I’ve definitely seen “Charlie” used for both. So he wouldn’t even have to change anything there. Still, if you asked him what he identifies as, his answer would probably something like “An Avatar Of Vengeance”, which, while accurate, isn’t the answer most people are looking for. (He knows this. He does it on purpose.) That being said though, I still have no clue what reboot Charlie’s deal is or how many souls he’s got stuffed up in there, but hey! Like I said, anyone can be anything so who’s to say Charlie ISN’T still genderfluid in the current timeline? Could have just been a “dude” day when we met him the first time around.

4. Junior is genderfluid! Or, well, would have been in the future. This just feels like a logical progression of the worldview Junior had going. He seemed very into transhumanism and just changing yourself to who you want to be instead of sitting there and waiting for it. I certainly can’t imagine him going “Hm yes. I have all these options, but I think I’m just going to stick with being a Regular Dude until the day I die.” when he was so gung-ho about getting his hands chopped off and replaced with giant claws. Therefore I could see a “I think, therefore I am.” sort of philosophy with regards to his gender developing as he gets older. “I think I want to be a girl today, so I am a girl! That’s all there is to it!” Unfortunately, considering he was being raised to be a weapon (or at least a lab rat) of some sort, I don’t know how much his identity would be respected, but I’d imagine there’s at least one or two people in his life that would nod and swap over to what he was feeling that day. 

5. Lexi as a nonbinary woman. To explain a little bit, most people who imagine nonbinary genders for the first time think of gender as a slider with “dude” on the left side and “lady” on the right side with nonbinary genders somewhere in the middle. And for some people, that’s how they feel… but for others, its not that simple, with their gender being somewhere “off the grid” so to speak, or aligning themselves with one gender but… not.. QUITE all the way with it, or picking and choosing the parts of it they like, etc. So a girl or a guy, but… a nonbinary girl or guy. I could see Lexi as this, using she/her pronouns or they/them pronouns, just kind of being blase about it. 

I talked about the Wight’s general culture a little bit and how it came off to me, but not Thal’nasia’s. To put it simply, I don’t think Thal’nasia is NEARLY as bad as the Wights, but I do think it has its own troubles. Between Trevor’s comments about how the humans shouldn’t trust anyone (which is probably in reference to the politicians, but it also implies a “the walls have ears” sort of vibe for the kingdom in general) and the fact that the elves are several years behind human culture in general, I could imagine being different in this way wouldn’t be… necessarily frowned upon, but there would certainly be a lot of gossip. Not to mention, it’s not like anyone who lives there can just move away if coming out doesn’t go so well. So I’d imagine things would be a little awkward for anyone who’s off the beaten track in terms of gender identity or sexuality, getting a lot of gritted teeth smiles and hesitant “Uh-huhs”. And then getting a lot of whispers and giggles as soon as their back is turned.

With that in mind, I think Lexi would have some trouble getting people to take her seriously, but in some ways I think this meshes well with what we saw of her in the preboot setting. She’s already a pretty counterculture person, working in a store that explicitly sells things that are edgy or in poor taste. And she’s already used to secluding herself to a degree, considering that she had been able to hide her plague markings for a while by the time we saw her for the first time. So for people she doesn’t know too well, I could see her introducing her gender in a half-joking manner similar to how she runs her shop in general, and gauging their reaction to see if they’re cool about it or not, at which point she’d either double down on the edgy performance or relax a bit.

6. Cerene is polyamorous! This one’s mostly for fun, and mostly because it was implied that Cerene had to pick either Morris or Charlie, and… why not both? Neither Morris nor Charlie seemed to dislike each other, and neither seem like the jealous type. Morris is super chill and reasonable, and as I already mentioned up in #3 I really don’t think Charlie’s the kind to care about traditional relationships. And who’s to say they wouldn’t like each other as well? Not to mention Cerene’s certainly capable of splitting her attention and dedicating the time needed to maintain a relationship that’s… bigger than most peoples’. I’m just saying, if anyone could make a polycule work, it’s probably Cerene with her insane networking skills. Bael’s downplaying her skills by just assuming she sleeps around a lot. Oh no- she’s asking multiple people about their day, keeping notes of their personal preferences and wants for birthday gift reasons, and plotting out multiple sweet date ideas to take place simultaneously. She has this shit ORGANIZED. There is a day planner. Also she gets to bang a lot but that’s, like, secondary.

7. James Narron is gay? Perhaps? Granted we only barely know him, but still. He seems like a nice guy with a tendency to scoop up and mentor outcast children. Perhaps due to a history of being a bit of an outcast himself? Not enough to damage his career- he’s still head of the scholar’s society after all- but something that makes him feel a little different in the crowd. I just think it would be neat!

8. Mara is a trans girl. This one’s a bit harder to explain, and considering I have no idea how she’s translated over to the reboot timeline (if at all, seeing as the circumstances of her backstory and personality have been completely erased.) Buuut I think this meshes well with her once you take into account her various motivations. She’s determined to be taken seriously. People try to brush her off due to being very young and not mentally fit for the position due to the whole “child soldier” thing. So she’s used to people not taking her seriously at best and at worst finding the fact that she’s in her hard-earned position at all to be disgusting. Not to mention that folks don’t exactly trust the red army to start with. This… surprisingly parallels a lot of what transwomen have to go through, both being taken seriously as real women and as not being seen as a “threat”. This is probably even harder for younger trans girls who no doubt constantly get the “Okay, but can you really be SURE at your age?” treatment. 

You could also link this, surprisingly, into her hairstyle. Mara has boxy cut bangs in the front, but has a long twist braid in the back, far longer than most other characters in the comic. You could argue its a sense of personal style, but there’s a reason people in the military cut their hair so short (and even women in the military keep theirs in tight buns.). So you could handwave it as “it helps differentiate the character and looks like a vine, which is her whole shtick.”, which is a completely valid reading! But it’s known that a lot of trans women grow their hair out as a point of pride in transitioning, and its heartbreaking if they have to get it cut off again. So while it might be more convenient and strategic for Mara to cut her hair, she could also have a very good reason for keeping it as long as possible,

9. Dr. Grenner is bisexual. Or just questioning? Something like that? This has zero textual support and is just kind of fun to think about in terms of the personal conflict it would bring up for him. First and foremost- not everyone figures out that they’re LGBT right away. It’s not a “kids these days” sort of thing, anyone can learn something new about themselves at any time. It would be nice to see a character that has this experience, just for fun and interest! That being said, Grenner as we know him would be an interesting choice for this, considering that until very recently in the preboot’s storyline, he was likely happily married to a woman. (I mean. Iggy had to come from SOMEWHERE, and I doubt he was plucked out of a cabbage patch.) And it ended… badly. 

As a result, I could see him being really conflicted due to his grief and the fact that he’s now single for the first time in decades. And, well. Santris is the only guy who really seems to stop and have any in depth conversations with him who isn’t a coworker or a patient. (Also, he’s kinda pretty. And Grenner finds that he can’t really stop looking at his eyes? That’s. Weird. Hm.) This leads into mental conflict between “It’s fine! Plenty of people figure this out at your age, and let’s be honest, there WERE some signs for it back when you were in college.” and “This isn’t anything, you’re still heavily grieving and you have a monster living in the back of your head and you’re heavily projecting onto the one person that actually treats you like a person. Get ahold of yourself.” Which one is it? Well, that’s what storytelling is for, you figure it out. But I could easily imagine himself just sitting there and psychoanalyzing himself endlessly to try and keep the issue at arms length, treating himself like a patient to avoid having to confront the emotional reality of his grief, guilt, and weird crush.

Not sure how Santris would feel about all of this because who even knows what that guy thinks, but I’m pretty sure he would definitely notice. And maybe milk it just a little bit so he doesn’t have to stretch and grab things on tall shelves anymore. Or pull out his own chair. Or make his own coffee. It’s a nice change of pace.

Is this piling too much on poor Grenner when he’s already such a guilt driven person? Yeah, probably. But what is fiction but a chance to torment fictional people with weird crises about their sexuality.

10. The old Wights? Are probably a lot of things? I’m not necessarily referring to the old Wights we’ve seen already, just the culture and atmosphere for the old clan in general. I definitely noticed how the old Wights and Adigards definitely don’t have the same culture as the new ones. There’s no need to prove themselves to be great- they ARE the greatness that the modern Wights are trying to live up to. So there’s not as much of an issue with trying to “fit in”. They’re the ones setting the standard to start with. Not to mention the old Wights are so far modified from their original human bodies already, does it really matter what they identify as after a certain point? That guy has 50 arms with flesh ripping claws and you’re saying he’s not a guy because there’s also a set of boobs involved? How do you know he didn’t put those on himself anyway? Let’s be honest, most people are going to refer to you as “OH GOD, WHY WON’T IT DIE!” anyway. Might as well call yourself whatever you want.

There’s also at least a little bit of historical support to this as well. The old Wights are vikings, or at least rather viking-inspired. In comparison to a lot of peoples that were living at the same time, vikings were surprisingly chill? It’s pretty well known that viking women could own property and demand divorces, etc. Who’s to say the Adigard family couldn’t take that an extra step further? 

And then there’s the characters I WOULDN’T make a particular thing, whether it REALLY doesn’t make sense for them story-wise, or would just be stumbling into a bad stereotype for a particular group. I don’t think it’s impossible, but you’d definitely need to have more members OF that group in the story to make it clear that that’s just what that particular CHARACTER is like, and not an assumption of what that group of PEOPLE is like.

1. It could look bad if Sally was a transwoman. Don’t get me wrong- I love Sally a LOT. Like, SO much. Her personality is so much fun and I just love big, kinda dumb brawler characters. She has interesting twists to her personality (like how she loves being strong and having cool powers but is also aware that she didn’t use to be quite this aggressive and violent and finds it difficult to know where the line is and know when to stop.) and makes an excellent foil to the characters that have a tendency to ramble on. But… let’s be honest, having the explicitly beefy, aggressive female character be the only transgender woman would be a really bad look. Trans women are very frequently under a large amount of scrutiny for how they present themselves, and overly muscled and aggressive individuals are one of the negative stereotypes for that group. Does that mean I think Sally is a bad character? No, absolutely not! I’m aware she has depth, and for a cisgender woman I think her power set is a breath of fresh air. God knows I’d love to have the ability to throw someone across a city block when a guy’s been following me for a little too long when I’m walking home at 2 am. But I do think that, in the absence of other trans women, making her transgender would be choice made in poor taste as it hews too close to stereotypes that have been made to insult and belittle these women.

2. Max and Arthur as… well, anything. This is in regards to the preboot setting. We have known Arthur for literally one page in the reboot and he’s already clearly pretty different from the old version of him so I’m withholding all judgement there. Still, this one’s a little harder to explain. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of a young Maxwell feeling absolutely nothing for all of the girls dragged in front of him as potential suitors and eventually picking one for no reason other than “Dad liked her”. Max assuming its normal to feel this way because being asexual isn’t an option when it’s your literal job to carry on the family bloodline. I like the idea of Arthur waking up from an accidental nap in front of the TV to find that it’s moved on to some sort of documentary about trans women and how relieved they felt to be able to reflect on the outside how they felt on the inside and sits there watching it blithely for a little bit too long before he identifies that feeling in his chest as something close to pain and scrambles for the remote a little too fast while grumbling something about kids these days ruining their bodies for shits and giggles. (Hey remember how I mentioned that those skull motifs are usually only worn by girls? I say usually because Arthur is the only dude who wears them. Funny, that.)

It could definitely be interesting to interpret them as something else, but… I think it would have to be in an AU or timeline just to the left where they’re. Mmmmore tolerable as people. Look let’s be honest, in the original Suppression timeline, Max and Arthur are some of the biggest… well, evil people we see. The younger Wights have their sympathetic traits (or are just hilariously outmatched such that they aren’t really a threat. Sorry Jericho.). Grenner wasn’t even trying to be a villain. Kolt is creepy as hell and I try to forget he exists. William… isn’t really traditionally sapient, it’s hard to hate an evil Siri. We don’t know much about Santris, and we were really only getting started on Maggie and Bartleby. But Max and Arthur kill innocent people, kill their kids, kill each other because they’re canonically selfish, miserable people. If you wanted to redeem either, they’d have to be… well, not those people. So like I said, you’d need a different version of canon.

This is because, well. While I’m sure there are evil people that are… let’s pick one and say gay. 1. Gay-coding villains is a well known negative stereotype. And 2. Saying that people who are against LGBT rights in real life are totally just repressed gay people is both harmful and… idk, annoying. For point one, there’s plenty of villains where they’re presented with traits associated with LGBT individuals. Think how Ursula in The Little Mermaid was based on a drag queen, Scar in The Lion King is a sort of effeminate gay stereotype, Raoul Silva in Skyfall and his… weird homoeroticism. Don’t ask me why those were the first three examples that came to mind. In and of itself, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Everyone loves Disney villains, they’re the most fun characters! But in settings where they’re the ONLY characters that are LGBT, it suddenly creates the stereotype that… all LGBT people are inherently evil, deviant, or corrupt in some way. Which is a nasty thing to say. For a lot of the other villains, it could be fun! But these two are just so unavoidably (if amusingly) awful that it feels… weird to pin this stuff on them.

Which leads me into the second point. It’s fun to poke fun at say… a pastor saying all gay people are going to hell by going “Man, he has sure been talking about gay guys and their gay sex for a really long time huh? Makes you wonder, huh?” Because unfortunately at the end of the day… statistically, they aren’t. They just want to hurt those people (or “help” them in their own minds but again, let’s be real here.) And even if they ARE, they’re doing so much damage that it’s hard to feel sorry for them. It feels similar to my own experiences where I’d be bullied by a guy at school and the adults around me would be like “Oh don’t worry, he just has a crush on you!” Great! Awesome! That helps me out a LOT and makes me feel so much better. Really unrips up the homework he stole from me. That’s definitely a behavior we should be encouraging in guys too. Just fantastic. Yeah, I don’t think that mindset really helps anyone, and frankly feels like it would be a shallow addition to these guys.

And let’s be honest, with these two it feels like part of the fun that they’re so irredeemably awful because when they lose it feels just that much better. It was so, SO funny watching Max get squished by a demon falling several stories, or watching Sally deck Arthur in the face and Arrie blind him temporarily. It was fitting watching Arthur drink Max’s phylactery, wrapping up both of their character arcs as selfish people who inevitably only had each other but couldn’t even trust each other- and shouldn’t have. And then Sin Arthur got thrown around like a ragdoll by King Law like five minutes later. It was GREAT. If it turns out that deep down they felt differently but didn’t feel like they could say or do anything about it, it would make them more sympathetic and thus make me feel… well, worse about watching them get beat down on. Which would inevitably make those moments I mentioned fall a little flat. 

So, uhm. Yeah. I think that’s everything? Just about everything? Holy crap, I was NOT expecting to write this much. Maybe a few notes for each character, but nothing huge. And it did get huge, that’s. That’s a LOT of words. I’d apologize, but I’m not THAT sorry about it- it was really nice to get the opportunity to put to words some of the feelings I’ve been having on this stuff for a while.

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

March 31st was, as my tumblr dash informed me, International Trans Day of Visibility! Which got me thinking about my LGBT headcanons and whatnot, and… as it turns out, if you reread the preboot continuity, it’s REALLY easy to read Iggy as being a transgender guy. Hi, Iggy! My reasoning and discussion of the topic is under the cut:

To preface: this stuff is all fun headcanons, I realize it’s not the truth nor do I expect it to be. It’s a fun lil AU if anything. That being said… a LOT of Iggy’s characterization and description parallels a lot of (as far as I’ve learned and talked about with other people) common trans experiences, and if it had been revealed that his old alliterative name was a feminine one instead of a masculine one, it would have been less a sudden plot twist and more “Oh, that makes PERFECT sense. Fuckin’ duh, how did I not figure that out until just now.”

Like… there’s the fact that he is incredibly stubborn about giving any clues about his identity prior to Ebon Creek going to shit, coming up with a new name the second he had a clean slate to work with. And he takes it very seriously, brushing off any comments about it being a fake name and doggedly refuses to tell people more about his more distant past, focusing on the present. Could be read as just being dedicated to covering up his past, or... With this interpretation, he could be trying to keep people from learning his dead name and old stuff about him that he’d really like to keep in the past now that he has nothing stopping him from living his best life. Except for the um, demons and zombies and shit, but that’s a side issue.

This stubbornness extends especially into interactions with Bael as well, how he refuses any of the power boosting body puppeting except for in the case of very brief emergencies. After all, if Bael stayed in there for longer than 5 seconds, he could probably dig through his memories enough to figure things out… and while I’d like to believe that Bael wouldn’t be an ass about Iggy being trans SPECIFICALLY (because I would like him a lot less for that) he is a massive asshole in general who definitely wouldn’t turn down a vulnerable spot to jab at or a secret to hold over his head. 

And then (and this is a smaller issue to be sure), there’s the outfits. A lot of trans people tend to wear clothing that shapes or conceals their bodies to avoid getting misgendered. The dysphoria hoodie phenomenon is real… or in this case, the dysphoria massive fluffy coat and baggy camo cargo pants. Body shape? What body shape? All I see is fur and fabric. Of course, this is my weakest point, considering that he wore a plain tank top for a lot of the story (and this hardly applies to every trans person) but hey, maybe he just had a really comfy binder. You don’t know. I HAVE BEEN INFORMED. That a lot of binders can look like tank tops. Like this! The theory is BACK ON, baby. In addition- that haircut is definitely indicative of “I tried to cut my hair myself and it didn’t turn out GREAT, but at least it’s short now.”

Of course, there’s some parts that don’t actively hint at a trans narrative, but there is at least one plot point that it would help prop up and make stronger. Specifically… how did Dr.Grenner not know Iggy was alive and try to find him sooner? It was clear that they knew there were at least a few survivors that Kolt was actively keeping tabs on. (Or trying to.) Could we really expect them to have ZERO photos or at least descriptions of the main survivors of Ebon Creek, despite the murder robots running around? Or… does it make more sense that he would be keeping an eye out for a description of a particular young lady, and thus losing hope when all he got back was descriptions of Cerene and Sally?

Overall this is a bunch of little clues that are nothing in particular when taken separately, but when combined, coincidentally add up to it looking like Iggy is trans. The only piece missing to make this a perfect trans narrative is… well, the trans part. That scene with Dr.Grenner could have been two plot twists in one with only slight tweaks to the dialogue, but alas! Iggy is only transgender in my heart. Which is a weird sentence out of context. But hey, happy TDOV.

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

And with this update I get to update my bingo card! We got a freaking MOM in here, y’all!

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

Part one of a four part series on... well, fan characters of mine. Like the theoretical animals I posted a while back though, these are all characters and things that COULD theoretically exist (in the reboot canon, btw), if juuuuust off screen.

The first being: The Night Owl

AKA Magic D.B. Cooper

More under the cut.

It’s well known that Sentor banks are impregnable, especially the central vault. Between the state of the art magical locks, the leystone heavy building construction, and the dragons strewn about, wandering into Thal’nasia’s banks with anything but the most up to date credentials is usually a very easy way to get yourself killed. Indeed, there’s never been a record of a successful robbery of one... except that one time. An extreme fluke, as agreed upon by pretty much everyone in Thal’nasia.

Years ago, at 3:32 AM on a Friday in the spring, every security monitor in the entirety of the central bank shut off at once. 15 minutes later, they came back on again and the equivalent of 20 million USD was found missing from the vault. It was as if the money just vanished, with only two pieces of evidence to show for it. The first, a dull, primitive knife, and the second, a single photograph of the perpetrator- an individual now known only as “The Night Owl”. Because of their outfit, The Night Owl’s gender, species, and race is completely unknown, (with bright and weight only having vague estimations) and the symbol seen on their briefcase had not been recorded anywhere else prior to the robbery. The lack of evidence has left dozens of questions about the event unanswered. How did they access the vault to start with? Why target the most secure bank in the country? How did they manage to relocate the massive amounts of money that was later found missing?

In addition to the photo, the only other piece of evidence- one of the knives that can be seen floating around The Owl- was found left in the center of the vault where hundreds of thousands of coins had been sitting less than half an hour prior. When recovered, it became immediately clear that the knife was one of the most advanced spell decryption and breaking devices ever developed, able to cause a sealed safe’s spells to unravel and break open with a mere tap, without the use of leystone. The spell behind it must have been incredibly complex, but the knife itself has no inscribed runes, implying a long distance enchantment, with the knife’s magical effects being projected from a distant inscribed object. All attempts to trace this connection were blocked however, and after three hours the knife ceased to function, the line apparently cut. The knife itself is a roughly hewn block of steel- no handle, a dull edge, and poor balance, useable only for its original purpose as a spell antennae and nothing more. Despite its plainness however, this “owl feather” has taken its place in the public consciousness as a tantalizing clue for the case, and every year someone always seems to come up with some sort of idea on how it can be traced back to The Night Owl. To date, none of these ideas have worked.

It would appear that whoever The Night Owl is, they’re biding their time. None of the coins stolen have been passed into regular circulation, despite the bounty for recovering just one coin with one of the known stolen serial numbers on it. The rumor mill now speaks of The Nest- the theoretical hiding spot of the ill-gained money, hidden until The Owl sees fit to spend it. Needless to say, anyone who could take it for themselves would be set for life.

Over time the case has become increasingly difficult to solve. The unique nature of the robbery has caused dozens of copycats to appear, who claim to be The Night Owl, use their symbol, and attempt their own daring acts of thievery (which usually fail, with potentially lethal consequences). The result of this is the generation of dozens of false leads and dead ends, leaving the true identity of the thief obscured- perhaps forever.

All that is known is that The Night Owl knew what they were doing. Their appearance was loose and casual, their tools highly specialized, and the event took place over a very short time frame. This person is no doubt one of the world’s best thieves- and the best thieves are never caught.

[thenegoteator]

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

me rolling up in the goddamn comments section every time to bother everyone else

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

Been a bit, hasn’t it? Well, have a... have...

............Enjoy! He’s your problem now!

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

Suppression Card Game

Suppression: The Card Game ~Or~ Let’s See How Many Trading Card Games I Can Mash Into One Clusterfuck The Cards: Card Anatomy (Not a real card, just an example) ←Upper Circle indicates the class. ← Image of the character ← Circles indicating Health, Defense, Movement, and Climb ← All of ...

Behold: The weirdest piece of fanart I’ve done yet. Spawned by my thought of ‘man, this comic has enough characters that you could make a TCG out of it’. And then I did, and finished just in time for the one year anniversary!

Overall, this project is pretty rough, but IS playable using a site like roll20 and a random name picker. (Ideally I’d love to make a physical version someday but that’s a ways out). It is also not playtested at ALL. Are some of these abilities and stat sets COMPLETELY broken? Probably! I was just writing what sounded good! Furthermore, not all characters are in there- I cut a few for a few reasons. First of all, I couldn’t really come up with a moveset for because they never really engaged in combat or gave any clues as to their abilities in canon. (Roni, for example). Also, the ‘mages’ category had a LOT more characters in it than the others, so I dropped some of them.

That’s not to say that this is all there’ll ever be though! I’d love to create ‘expansion packs’ of characters from the reboot (yeah this is the preboot timeline too, sorry. Reboot doesn’t have a ton of characters yet.) and characters I missed the first time around. But that’ll have to wait until I’ve playtested and refined this current set.

So happy new year, and happy anniversary! Have a weird card game!

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

A two for one this time! Normally I wouldn’t do two at a time like this, but my species selections for these two are thematically related (both bears), so it felt necessary. Design notes under the cut!

-I don’t quiiite headcanon either of their body shapes looking like this. I try to blend the animal and human anatomy with these designs, and bears are just sort of... lumpy, shapeless animals. Sorry, bears.

-Max definitely gave me more trouble to draw. ;n; I didn’t mean for him to look so stiff when I try to add a sense of dynamism in these drawings, but... well, he’s a very stiff, formal sort of person, and I didn’t want to draw him out of character either. Oh well, I suppose?

-I noted at the start of this series of drawings that familial relationships weren’t going to define what species they were, (such as Samantha and Jericho not even being mammals while their dad is a panda.) but considering how these two are foils to each other narratively and are rarely seen apart, I thought making them two species that are similar in appearance and genetics but very different in personality and public perception/symbolism was fun and fitting.

-The only ‘rule’ I have so far is that all the Wights are carnivorous species of animals because Symbolism... with the exception of Arthur for the irony. I’m sure he’s only a little bit bitter about it.

-I think Max was like, the second character I wrote a species down for in this series. He gives a very strong polar bear vibe, idk.

-Arthur was originally going to be a sun bear (which are. uh. they’re very. just google them. they certainly ARE.), but pandas felt more thematically appropriate. I also like how the black eye markings function both as eye bags and eyebrows.

-Sin Arthur (Arthwell? Maxthur? idk man)... ehnnn I thought about drawing him, but the lack of decent references and the fact that Max gave me enough trouble made me decide not to. P much he’d look a lot like Arthur but with sharper teeth+claws, washed out looking markings, and of course the altered hair style and outfit.

-As for what’s next... I’ll PROBABLY do Sigvaldi and King Law, but unfortunately most of the old Wights don’t have good enough visuals for me to do proper justice.

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

I noticed that after a long while of drawing these characters, my art style has been getting increasingly cartoony... so I decided to just lean into it and make some straight animation references. I’ve been wanting to practice more animation other than walk cycles for a while anyway- why not practice with these guys?

...Also I do believe this marks the first time I’ve drawn reboot Sam and the second I’ve drawn reboot Arrie. Huh. I really should get around to drawing them more often.

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

Boy howdy, these pics just keep getting bigger, huh? Though that’s mostly because of the pic of Alaster and Merry as kids. What can I say, I’m having fun. :3

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

Next one! Jericho’s design is fun to look at but oh man, is it hell to draw. I think I figured it out well enough, though. Funnily enough, he was the first character that I actually decided on an animal form for- komodo dragons fit way, way too well with his fighting style and general personality. (A lot of other characters don’t have quite as perfect a fit- I’m still trying to decide for a lot of them!) It’s a shame his outfit is so baggy though- I was pretty proud of the undersketch!

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

AZURE NEUVET CONFIRMED FOR MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

Something about Alaster’s reaction to being called a cop in this update felt... familiar, in a way. 

(Also yeah I have no clue what Alaster looks like from the waist down rn. Lets hope it’s something similar to this.)

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

My laptop broke and I had to send it in for repairs, which means I can’t work on my current project until I get it back...

which means, of course, I’m going to be drawing a ton of art on my old laptop until it’s fixed.

Have a sloppy Narron.

[greetingsfromeboncreek]

My hand’s feeling a little better and these are (relatively) quick and easy to do, so I churned out another one of these. :3 I’m not sure if reboot Sam would be the same species to be honest; she’s a lot more... ‘hopeful’ isn’t quite the right word, but certainly more energetic. Preboot Sam’s ennui, though? Definitely a Greenland Shark.