finally got around to drawing cover image for the Western AU Felix/Dolores playlist i've been building for the last month (also an excuse to do a very lazy imitation of the backdrop of one of my favourite paintings, because painting clouds is very therapeutic)
music to romance an eldritch witch-girl to (tracks & selected lyrics) under the cut~
"Vampire Cowgirl" by Tele Novella
You came barrelling down
Rabid with some talk
Of a gal who rides at night
Picking off the stock
By the light of the moon
Blood upon the ground
She had slain a longhorn ox
Nearly without sound
Thought he hadn't any fear
Since he went to war
But I have never seen a man
Cry like that before
Like a whip to hide
Her gaze caught his own
Rendered him a beast of prey
Scared him to the bone
"Under Your Spell" by Timber Timbre
The sun was setting in the east
A bad moon rising in the south
Black rain underfoot
Falling up from underground
I must be under your spell
I'm under your spell
I must be under your spell tonight
"In Boxes" by Aurora
I went out in the morning looking for a man
I could see you were the perfect one
Standing all alone
I've been walking ahead for a while
And dragging your body behind
Bye, baby, I had a good time
Bye, baby, I know you won't mind
Here I am, still lonely with the souvenirs
I would kill for some company
I did once have a lover only kept his hands
They can dance and play the songs for me
Play until I sleep
"Witch in the Cut" by Milo Korbenski
In the black of the night time
She is sleeping in my bed
Though my eyes see only darkness
She is creeping in my head
Singing: "Oh, sweet wonder
Do you wonder about me?
Baby, let the river roll you
Let it show you how to be"
Each night I pray I don't wake up
I gave my love to a witch in the cut
"Axolotl" by The Veils
I'm glowing bright, obsidian
Axolotl, amphibian
Unelemental chemicals
Got me growing six black tentacles
A little nightmarish, a little maudlin
Good golly, go get the kid some laudanum
Salvation's more than I can afford
Who needs the devil when you've got the lord?
"Cult of Love" by Dum Dum Girls
We touch beneath our skin
Right down to the bare wires
Time to begin again
A spark that fits the fire
I belong (We belong)
I belong to the cult of love
Won't you join too?
"I'm Your Puppet" by James & Bobby Purify
Pull the string and I'll wink at you
I'll do funny things if you want me to
I'm your puppet
I'm yours to have and to hold
Darling, you've got full control
Of your puppet
Make me do right or make me do wrong
Your every wish is my command
All you gotta do is wiggle your little hand
"Every Other Freckle" by Alt-J
I want to share your mouthful
I want to do all the things your lungs do so well
I'm gonna bed into you like a cat beds into a bean bag
Turn you inside out and lick you like a crisp packet
You're the first and last of your kind
I want to be every lever you pull
And all showers that shower you
I want to be every button you press
And all the baths that surround you
I'm gonna kiss you
Like the sun browns you
Devour me
If you really think that you can stomach me
"Hungover in Jonestown" by Amigo the Devil
You are the queen, and I am the rook
You are the fire, and I burn like a book
I don't know how this one ends 'til I die
The greater the power, the more the abuse
You are the hand, I worship the bruise
If romance is dead, I guess I'm a necrophiliac
"Iodine and Iron" by the Veils
Ain't it useless to fight or to pretend
It'll all come out right in the end?
Still you wait for me
I feel as mad as the moon
And twice as scarred
Still you wait for me
Your love's been stripping me down like turpentine
Soon I'll be erased with iodine and iron
"Far From Any Road (Be My Hand)" by Andrew Bird (cover)
From the dusty mesa
Her looming shadow grows
Hidden in the poison creosote
In the hushing dusk
Under a swollen silver moon
I came walking with the wind
To watch the cactus bloom
She twines her spines up slowly
Towards the boiling sun
And when I touched her skin
My fingers ran with blood
Then rise with me forever
Across the silent sands
And the stars will be your eyes
And the wind will be my hand
"Shrike" by Hozier
Dragging along, following your form
Hung like the pelt of some prey you had worn
Remember me, love, when I'm reborn
As the shrike to your sharp and glorious thorn
Ah, but I'm flying like a bird to you now
Back to the hedgerows where bodies are mounted
Remember me, love, when I'm reborn
As the shrike to your sharp and glorious thorn
4. How would they describe each other if asked? Physically? In personality?
Felix about Dolores:
"Delulu-lores? Creepy little chica. She's cute looks-wise, sure, if skinny's your type, but after a minute of talking to her, your ancient lizard brain starts telling you something's off, and you'd better run now while you still can, if you have any survival instincts. Y'know what I mean? This girl reminds me of one of those bugs that eats its partner after mating. Pretty sure she climbed out of someone's sleep paralysis nightmare or maybe a cursed videotape."
Dolores about Felix:
"Mr. Papadakis… At first I thought maybe he was like.. a washed-up D-list actor from the '80s? Or a former sports newscaster maybe? He has this way of talking like he's putting on a one-man show for you. He dresses like someone's preppy dad, but like he's wearing a "Normal Guy" Halloween costume, if that makes sense. He's actually way funnier once you get to know him and realize how scared he is all the time, behind the dumb jokes. Every time we interact, I feel like I need to wash my brain with bleach though."
Dolores' entity about Felix:
"Excellent bone mineral density. A nice plectrum or perhaps even a flute could be made from his femur."
9. What is one quality they have in common? For Felix and Rafi >:)
Hmm, I'd say they're both very physical! In the sense that they both genuinely love exercise/sports (Felix: weightlifting, swimming, and cycling; Rafi: gymnastics, dance, and skateboarding)—and in the sense that they both express affection with lots of touching.
There is a lot of wrestling, play-fighting, and Rafi getting picked up by Felix and thrown around (both in platonic situations and not.. lol). I think I had in my early notes somewhere that Felix immediately takes a liking to Rafi when he first meets him because Rafi has such a good, firm handshake. And for all his evil ways, Felix gives really nice hugs, like the platonic ideal of a comforting bear hug.
If Mia sees Rafi put his head on Felix's shoulder when they're all sitting on the couch watching a movie, or if she sees Felix grab Rafi by the waist to move him out of his way, she probably doesn't think anything of it, because she knows they're both quite touchy-feely. Honestly, sometimes Felix is a little too handsy for her tastes, but being a dancer herself, she does love that he's fairly graceful on the dance floor.
Also, kind of in line with the sports/exercise thing: if they were dogs, I would describe them both as "high-drive" types—meaning if you don't play fetch with them in a field for at least an hour every day or give them a job to do, they will become neurotic and destroy your furniture (or each other), metaphorically speaking.
Questions about two of your original characters about their relationship. Should work for friends/lovers/coworkers/enemies/etc, maybe not so much for family, but you're welcome to try!
How did they meet?
How long have these two characters known each other?
What were their first impressions of each other? How does that compare to their impressions of each other now?
How would they describe each other if asked? Physically? In personality?
Do they get along? Why or why not?
Do they have any shared interests/hobbies? Do they ever do these hobbies together?
How often do they see each other? Where do they usually meet?
How do they communicate with each other? Are there any recurring phrases or gestures unique to their relationship?
What is one quality they have in common?
What is one major difference between them?
Does one act as a narrative foil to the other? How so?
Do they have any affection for each other? How do they show it?
Do they have any disdain/contempt for each other? How do they show it?
Do they share the same goals in life?
Do they trust each other? Why or why not?
Is one of them keeping secrets from the other? Why? How would they react if the secret was revealed?
Are they keeping a secret together? How do they feel about that?
Do they view their relationship as temporary or permanent?
Are they satisfied with their relationship? Do they wish they were closer/more distant?
What is their best memory together?
What is their worst memory together?
When were they the most vulnerable with each other?
Do they have any mutual friends? Mutual enemies?
How do these two interact with each other in public versus in private?
If a stranger saw them together, how would they describe their relationship?
How would these characters react to being stuck in a small room with each other?
How far would they go for each other? Would they risk their own lives for each other?
I really adore your art and your OCs!! I'm looking forward to seeing more of them :)
Ahh thank you, I'm glad you like them! I feel like I am still relatively new to OC-posting & I am so so unhinged about them, so I appreciate this message very much! 💜🥺
I've been doing "OC fic sketches" to try to practice writing more, mostly taking old unpublished Western AU/Gilded Age AU comic scripts that I wrote a month ago and turning them into prose.. This one got long-ish so I put it under a cut.
"Hold still, Rafi, and let me rub it in properly, or it'll just look like I gave you a split lip." Rafa dabbed at her brother's mouth with her fingertip, painting it rose-petal red.
Rafi studied the face across from him that was almost the spitting image of his own—same large, brown eyes, dark brows, full lips—but softer and more finely featured. He allowed himself to pretend, not for the first time, that he was simply viewing his own reflection. Would the application of his sister's makeup hide their subtle differences, or serve to bring his squarer jaw and broader nose into sharper contrast with her own, he wondered. They had both been surprised by the way one of her spare flower-print gowns, scaffolded by corset and chest padding, had sculpted his lanky body into a convincingly girlish figure.
"All this time I didn't know I had a sister," Rafa had laughed, sounding pleased, while Rafi twirled the lace-trimmed skirts around his slim calves. But he remembered there had been a time—he was sure this was a real memory—when they were still quite small, before he'd been torn away from her to be given a new sister and new father, when they would sneak away to swap clothes and see how long it would take their mother to notice. Sometimes she would go the whole day without noticing.
Now, as Rafa swiped her thumb across the coin-sized tin of wax lip color, concern furrowed her brow. She pressed her thumb onto his bottom lip, then paused.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked. "If you don't, I can tell Papadakis to go to hell."
She leaned in close to hear his voice, which never rose above a whisper now. When he parted his mouth to answer, he felt the waxy tip of her thumb slide past his lips slightly and tap against his front teeth.
Any answer he may have given was interrupted by a voice from the door.
"How often he gave his lips in vain to the deceptive pool…"
They both jerked away from each other in surprise, and the sudden turn of Rafi's face toward the door caused his sister's thumb to smear a vivid streak of color from his crimson mouth to nearly his earlobe.
"Oh no, did I come in too soon? Am I interrupting a private moment? I should have knocked." Mr. Papadakis leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, peering down his nose at them through his glasses. He looked like he was trying not to laugh.
Rafa sighed and snapped the lid onto her tin of lipstick. "I was just trying to get him all dolled up for the camera, like you asked."
When Mr. Papadakis had proposed the idea of the photoshoot, she'd initially refused to have anything to do with the project and had declined on Rafi's behalf as well. "What, are you worried the wrong person will recognize your face if it's printed on some under-the-counter postcard? They'll be too busy looking at your tits, sweetheart," Mr. Papadakis had scoffed. But he assured her he had no intention of distributing the photographs, and that the project was "merely a visual panegyric to love, in the vein of Aristophanes," destined only for his "private collection".
"I know my reputation's not exactly sterling, but I don't need any trouble with the law," he'd said. "They're throwing obscenity charges at any artist they don't like these days. Why paint a target on myself, eh?"
Now he pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket, shaking his head chidingly, like parent who's caught his child trying on her mother's cosmetics. He took Rafi's chin in his hand, and Rafi turned his head obediently and let the smudged lip color be wiped from his cheek.
"She's made a real mess of your face there, Rafael. You look like someone spilled some extra paint on a Toulouse-Lautrec."
He tilted the young man's chin up to meet his gaze and winked. "Or is this Rafa? Even harder to tell you two apart now. I'd think you were honest-to-god identical twins if I didn't know what you've got hiding under those skirts of yours."
Rafi's face reddened to match his tinted lips. Rafa rolled her eyes.
"Actually, now, this isn't a bad look on you," Mr. Papadakis murmured once he'd finished wiping Rafi's cheek. "Maybe after you're done modelling, you and I can pick up where we left off the other day—"
Rafa stepped between the two and glared up at Mr. Papadakis, who would have sworn she was standing on the balls of her feet in an attempt to make up for their nearly half-foot height difference.
"Rafi, you don't have to do anything with him."
Mr. Papadakis laughed. "How rude of me! Apologies, Rafi."
He bowed his head slightly at Rafa. "I should have consulted Rafi's pimp first, of course. How much for a private appointment with this one, madam?"
Rafa's mouth fell open. "I'm not—"
"Actually, hold on." He grinned. "How much extra would it cost to have you stay and join us?"
Rafa raised her hand to slap Mr. Papadakis across the face, but he caught her arm by the wrist.
"Whoa, easy girl. Clearly I've touched a nerve." He looked between the two, eyebrows raised. "Or several."
He turned to Rafi, still holding Rafa's wrist. She tried to yank her arm out of his grasp, but his grip was like steel.
"What do you think, Rafi?" he said pleasantly. "Are you going to defend your sister? Or do you think she should be punished for trying to lay a hand on the man who has so generously plucked her out of the brothel and loaned her a room in his house? Well? Speak, boy."
Rafi opened his neatly painted mouth, then closed it. His teeth tasted like beeswax and tallow. He stared at a spot in the distance beyond their faces and said nothing, just shook his head.
Rafa jerked her arm back again, finally freeing it. "Don't tease him," she hissed. "You know he doesn't like to talk."
"Your mother only saw fit to give you one name, and God only saw fit to give you one voice." Mr. Papadakis put a hand on each of the twin's heads and ruffled their hair fondly. "How sweet that you two are so willing to share everything."
—
Notes:
"How often he gave his lips in vain to the deceptive pool" — Felix is quoting a line from Ovid's Metamorphoses about the Greek mythical figure Narcissus, an unfortunate young man who falls in love with his own reflection in a pool.
"some under-the-counter postcard" — Not referring to actual postcards sent in the mail, these were more like the precursors to porno magazine pin-ups.
"a visual panegyric to love, in the vein of Aristophanes" — Refers to a speech given in Plato's Symposium, about a Greek myth that imagined that each human was born joined to another until the god Zeus severed them in two.
"They're throwing obscenity charges at any artist" — This AU takes place around the time when Oscar Wilde was fighting charges of sodomy and gross indecency in the courts.
"like someone spilled some extra paint on a Toulouse-Lautrec" — Artist of the era known for painting scenes of can-can dancers and bordello workers.
more from the time-skip... it's almost like 18 years and a couple of near-death experiences and a throat-cutting and a maiming never even happened! let's bring it in for a hug, buddy
I saw a post about ways of making your OCs pathetic in character-specific ways, and it made me want to ponder the ways in which mine are cringe/embarrassing/pitiable...
In order of most pathetic (imo) to least:
Rafi: Frequently gets totally schwasted, like the kind of drunk where he's puking on his shoes and pissing the bed. Stupidly trusting of strangers. Terrible conversationalist. Sad wet dog vibes. Embarrassingly horny at inconvenient times & does not possess much finesse/patience/self-awareness when it comes to sex (clumsy & overeager unless he's being told what to do, finishes too fast when he tops).
Rafa: Self-sabotage queen. Addicted to toxic situationships. Purposely gets drunk/high so she has an excuse to make terrible decisions. Borrows money and never pays it back and then begs you for more. Laundry/dishes/trash neglect-er. Casually makes self-deprecating & "I should just kill myself" jokes to others' discomfort.
Felix: Terrible dad jokes, off-color humor & innuendos that become increasingly worse/not-funny the more uncomfortable or nervous he is. Can be very bitchy/cold/sullen on the rare occasions when he doesn't get his way. Control freak who is often bothered by inconsequential shit nobody else cares about. Gives off a sweaty, off-putting, slime-ball vibe when he's not on his game.
Dolores: Overworks herself, neglects her bodily needs, and then ends up exhausted & sick & helpless for days or weeks as a result of chronic burnout. Will get frustrated and throw little tantrums if she can't meet or exceed her own standards, or if she has to ask others for help.
Simone: Really cheesy and awkward when trying to talk to any girl she has a crush on. Like Felix, loves to tell dad jokes, make up stupid puns, and use cringe-y pick-up lines (ironically, she claims). Vocabulary/humor/tastes are a bit chronically online.
Mia: Prone to sentimentalism and nostalgia. Becomes a bed-rot marathoner if given the opportunity and in a mood. Expert at throwing little pity parties for herself. Acts like a high school mean girl when she's at odds with someone.
If invited to a TED Talk, what topic would they present on? What would the title of their presentation be? For Felix :)
What a fitting question, seeing as Felix loves to talk! To be so honest, the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this prompt in my inbox was that episode of It's Always Sunny where Dennis presents his D.E.N.N.I.S. method of emotional manipulation 😭
Felix's biological father was a salesman and his step-dad was in advertising, and he himself was an avid reader growing up, so I imagine he got exposed to those "improve your personality and get exactly what you want from people" self-help books at an early age. I could see some aggressive "life advice" from his step-father or a chance encounter with a book like "How to Win Friends and Influence People"* radically altering his personality trajectory from "smug but introverted literature/film/music elitist and nerd" to "smug but extroverted team-sports player and people-manager".
So he really could give a talk like "how to make others think you're well-adjusted and the poster boy of societal conformity even if you suspect you have a black hole where your soul should be" or "how to gaslight your loved ones (for their own good!)" and have a lot of "helpful" (😭) tips to share. I could see him playing it like satire/irony but secretly being 100% sincere.
Alternatively, I could see him doing a talk like "How to Bullshit Your Way Through a TED Talk" and it's just him telling terrible dad jokes and mocking the concept of self-help TED talks (with specific name-dropping/disses) for 15 minutes.
*To be fair, from what I recall, this book actually gives decent advice like "actively listen to people & give a shit about what they're saying" and "be empathetic". And I think Felix does find people genuinely fascinating. The thing is, he, specifically, also wants to use any psychological tool he can wield to hack people's emotions for his own gain, often to their detriment. It reminds me of a book I read about communication a while back that kind of pointed out that the people with the best people skills make the most effective government intelligence officers and interrogators lol
Sorry I'm just now answering this ask you sent me three months ago @neverxxnever ! 😭 This prompt really stumped me, so I ended up changing it to: "Because the thyme's run out." (Since you're a botany enthusiast, hopefully you will find that acceptable haha)
I think often Simone will send Rafi out on errands to Dr. Durand & Dr. Knox's house, sometimes because she gets too into her art projects to run errands herself, and sometimes because he gets too restless & she just wants him out of her hair for awhile. Rafi needs socialization and a job to do or he'll start climbing the walls, like a working dog with an adverse childhood rescued from a shelter...
Telling people jokes to shut them up
Resenting people that I love
Obsessing over graying hair
Knowing just what people wanna hear
Binging on unearned attention
Every woman that I've slept with
Every friendship I've neglected
I've done things unprotected
I've said awful things, such awful things
And now
Now it's out
I came by at seven in the morning
I said, "Baby, I'm finally succumbing"
Said something dumb like,
"I'm tired of running
Let's put a baby in the oven
Wouldn't I make the ideal husband?"
Sketch layer of an old expression sheet I found from the beginning of the year... Rafi used to be older + a lot scuzzier/rougher around the edges lol. I originally had the idea that he might be a gimmicky YouTube star whose scandal was that he was dating a 17-year-old fan. Felix used to be a dude named Ray, and he was Rafi's AA sponsor, but more intimidating & less goofy than Felix. Simone, on the other hand, has not changed much.
So while I was offline for a week or two, @gluku-pikron & I made up an Old West AU (takes place in California circa 1890ish), which is kind of a remix/funhouse mirror version of our original story.
Rafa & Rafi
Their mother, a dancer, had a romantic entanglement with a famous actor, who promised to marry her eventually, and who asked her to name their child "Rafael" (some family name). He never kept his promise (though he did leave her with some money), but she kept hers. Except she ended up having twins. Thus: Rafael & Rafaela. Adding to the confusion, they were nearly identical as children, and each would often pretend to be the other.
After falling on hard times, their mother took to working at a brothel, and sold Rafael to what she thought was a circus (it was actually a cult). Before their mother could recruit her daughter into her line of work to provide extra financial support, Rafaela ran away to go rescue her beloved brother. For five years, she traveled & lived with Simone.
Simone
Simone is a traveling herbalist who works with her colleagues Dr. Durand (a chemist) and Dr. Knox (a naturalist), selling cosmetics & cure-alls. If you need a little heroin syrup for your cough or an arsenic wafer for your complexion, she's your gal. When she & Rafaela finally find the cult that took Rafi, she's able to help Rafa infiltrate the group and rescue her brother by acting as the cult's laudanum source.
Felix
When Rafi & Rafa finally reunite, they start a new life together working at the same bar, with Rafi bar-tending and Rafa waitress-ing (when she's not taking patrons to the upper private rooms for other services). Felix is one of her regular "special" customers, and just obscenely and unfairly rich, so she tries to hatch a plot with her brother to discretely drug & rob him. This goes very poorly when Rafi ends up accidentally downing half of Felix's drink. At the end of that misadventure, Felix ends up in bed with Rafael instead of Rafaela, and he catches a glimpse of the scarification on Rafi's back given to him by the cult. Wanting to photograph and interview him (among other things), Felix invites both twins to work for him at his house. Rafael is a bit infatuated, and Rafaela wouldn't say no to such easy money & cushy lodgings.
Mia
Married into wealth, widowed quite young, and childless, Mia is living her best life writing poetry and donating some of her fortune to generous causes. She ends up dating the "confirmed bachelor" Felix Papadakis more out of boredom than anything, and they become fast friends. One day she visits his house while the twins are living there and falls head-over-heels in love with Rafaela (and the feeling is mutual).
Dolores
Kidnapped as an infant by the same cult that bought Rafi, she has never known any other life than the destiny they assigned to her—the vessel for a powerful alien entity or god who is summoned by a combination of music and intense sensation (pain and pleasure). The symbols carved into her back and Rafi's are musical notations that can be used to bring their respective entities into this dimension.
A few years after Rafi is rescued from the cult, she escapes to find him, in the hopes that he'll help her determine the last few missing symbols to fully bring her god into this world. When this proves to be a dead end, she ends up recruiting Felix to help her hunt down the last remaining cult members, to glean their secrets and seek a bloody revenge.
