some doodles with color; the last one is indeed traced over odin fire emblem. emil is definitely into dramatic posing and he walks a fine line between pulling it off and being a massive embarrassment.
finally summarized in one place bc I keep forgetting who I’ve told which details
~5 years ago: Emil is an ambitious student aiming to join the special police (an elite unit that uses magic and demons to handle supernatural incidents the normal police are unprepared for). Problem: he has zero magical ability of his own and that’s kind of a job requirement. So he decides to summon a demon and ask for its power. (technically anyone can do this, it’s just ritual and not innately magical, but it’s kind of a lost art and highly illegal these days)
The one who answers is Aleister, who at first laughs at his lame goal but eventually decides he likes his guts and agrees. They make a contract and it only occurs to Emil later that they never really set terms for it, but he’ll cross that bridge when he comes to it. He gains the ability to do some cool flashy fire magic, makes a great impression at the entrance exam for magical police academy, works hard and lands a good government job afterwards etc.
Cut to the present day: some weirdo with an eyepatch shows up at Emil’s place; it takes him a moment to realize who it is but then oh god he’s coming for my soul or something isn’t he. Aleister tells him to calm tf down, it’s fine, he’s not in any danger cause they never made a real contract in the first place. Al was just lending him some power ~out of the goodness of his heart~ cause he thought it looked like fun. Buuuut now he’s kinda been kicked out of the family and will probably be cut off from their big power source and can’t afford to do that anymore, so he just wanted to warn Emil ahead of time before he ends up being summoned again and yelled at about turning the fire off.
Emil is like excuse me I think the fuck not? Without magic he would lose his job and there is no more terrible fate in the universe than this. So he demands they make a real contract this time, consequences be damned. Al is hesitant (he’s never done this either- it’s “below someone of his status” to consort with humans like this) but sees a way to spin it to his benefit. He’ll do it on the condition that he can stay with Emil- he’s kind of on the run now and finding somewhere else in the human realm to stay would be a pain. Emil enthusiastically agrees, relieved that he can go on with his life and career.
To hide suspicions about Al’s identity and why they’re suddenly living together, they end up claiming that they’re dating, to Emil’s horror and Al’s amusement. On top of that it turns pretty quickly into a roommates-with-benefits situation (Al is a serial flirt so it’s nbd for him; Emil is inexperienced with relationships and thrown into a big gay panic by having an attractive guy so close to him). And as these things go, obviously they eventually start developing real feelings for each other, but they’re both terrible at communicating so it takes an unbearably long time before either of them will say anything about it explicitly.
Anyway back to plot, after a year or so the physical strain of the contract on Emil starts showing. He kept the ability to use fire, but without a power source to back it up he’s basically burning away his own life force to use it. So either they need to break off the contract, or Emil needs to start gathering more life force (i.e. killing people), or…they turn Emil into a demon too, before his human body is totally wrecked and he just dies completely (as opposed to dying temporarily, which is a thing that this ritual entails). It’s risky, but it works out. Emil is comedically bad at adjusting to his new powers, but eventually starts to embrace it because he’s always been an edgy bitch and this is really cool, actually. Plus he’s conveniently also now conditionally immortal and their relationship won’t have any tragic lifespan differences.
Also behind all this there’s sort of a vague plot of a hundreds-of-years-running scheme between the human government and the demon bourgeoise to amass a large power supply of human souls in a certainly less-than-ethical way. The demons can use this power without needing to dirty their hands with humans directly, and in return the government employs some demons without any of the risk of a personal contract. Aleister is from one of those important demon families, and getting a little too close to the secret is what got him into trouble in the first place. Between his knowledge and what Emil gathers while working for the human government, they’re some of very few people who start to piece the big picture together and (much to their displeasure) feel morally obligated to do something about it. So theoretically some plot happens and they kick some ass and in the end they’re a super power couple helping to rule hell or whatever. Insert “this is where I’d put my plot, if I had one” meme.
a somewhat-proper outfit ref for al until I make a new full sheet! winter and summer variants, I guess (he doesn’t really need to dress for the cold since he’s naturally very warm)
his fashion is very flexible though, so feel free to put him in whatever + add jewelry and accessories. design points to keep would be the necklace, orange shoelaces and orange scarf/bandana somewhere!
soft smiling emil is very rare and too powerful, I might finish the sketch sometime
al was inspired by a post that was like “characters with slit pupils- expectation: menacing and otherworldly. reality: looks like a complete dumbass when excited”
idk what endgame entails except that they are a fancy demon power couple. are you even aware how much emil would eat that shit up? an excuse to wear a CAPE. he is LIVING.
one day I’m gonna pay someone to draw them in these outfits but with details and shit
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