Couldn’t get this idea out of my head, so enjoy some Double Life doodles! Quote in the top left is from Ib - “You and the rose are connected. Know the weight of your own life. If the rose wilts, so too will you rot away.”
Further explanation and headcanons below the cut - warning, very rambly.
The basic idea is that everyone has a rose growing out of their skin just above their heart - the colour of the rose indicates what life they’re on, and it loses petals when they or their soulmate takes damage.
The rose itself is not a health indicator, though, as it always appears full no matter how many petals they lose. Unless they die, in which case they lose all the petals.
Also plucking the petals of the rose does not do any damage.
The top right picture is Pearl, shortly after losing Tilly, spending an entire night playing ‘Loves Me, Loves Me Not’ with her own rose - come morning, her rose was still full and her house was still empty, a carpet of bright green petals covering the floor.
There are also green lines running under the skin, spreading out from the rose - when their soulmate takes damage, one of these will grow a thorn and prick the skin to hurt them too.
These thorny ‘vines’ will also kill someone if their soulmate dies, which is what’s happening to Martyn. Not a fun way to go!
Pearl did at one point pull the ‘vine’ out through a wound and found it very thread-like when unthorned, and she now keeps a loop of it out at all times to attach to Tilly’s collar and use as a kind of leash, and also as proof that they’re soulmates! Look, they’re bound to each other with this weird soulmate-string and everything!
Cleo, being a zombie, finds that the threads weave in and out of her skin instead of just lying under the surface. They’ve also somehow connected to her flower crown, and she’ll often find cornflowers growing out of her body / from these threads all over her body, though she tends to prune them. It’s these flowers that she gifted to Martyn and Scott, though she only told Scott the truth of where they’d come from - she doesn’t trust that Martyn won’t twist the fact that she essentially gave him a part of her body / soul into something more than it is.
Grian, losing an eye in the first session, finds a flower now growing out of its socket. The flower is white with a black centre, looking basically like an eye itself. If he prunes it, it grows back quickly. He gifted one of these flowers to BigB with the cheesy line of “seems like you caught my eye!” - BigB did not know how to respond to that.
Jimmy has a habit of plucking the petals off his own flower when he’s distracted or nervous, meaning he tends to leave a trail of petals wherever he goes and often has several caught in his hair or clothes - this habit worried Tango no matter how much he tried to convince himself that it probably was just a habit, it didn’t mean anything, until he talked to Jimmy about it and Jimmy admitted that it might mean something, because every single petal is proof of how long they’ve managed to survive together. They’re still yellow, they’re still here. (you can tell I got this idea a few weeks ago, can’t you?) Anyway, now the sight of loose yellow petals brings a smile to Tango’s face.
Absolutely no thought went into the designs of the vine patterns in the drawing (I mostly just drew what I thought looked cool), though I do wish I had thought about it. It would have been fun to make them suggest something about how the person views the soulbond, such as wrapping around the neck and/or wrists indicating the person feels especially ‘bound’ - in the sense of trapped - by the bond.
Random additional thoughts:
My brother had a dream where Tango and Jimmy wore cages on their hips with canaries in which they absolutely adored - in the dream, they didn’t know what canaries were or the deadly symbolism linking them to Jimmy. Not a part of my general headcanon for their designs, but I wanted to draw it!
Another thing that’s not (necessarily) part of my general headcanon for designs - I couldn’t stop seeing the Jellie-headed Scar skin as basically being a shoulderless sweater(?) coming down over the hands, so I have drawn it to get the idea out of my head.
Grian has creepy eyes that are almost entirely black, the iris being so large there’s only a faint sliver of sclera visible most of the time. Also, no mouth.
Jimmy has freckles and flecks of colour in his eyes that match what life he’s on, because I think it looks cute, especially when he’s on yellow.
Scott and Cleo having matchy-matchy bracelets! Scott has weaved the flower Cleo gave him into his!
That’s about it - I do really need to nail down my designs for everybody.
My secret santa gift for @loudly–unladylike - some good old Bench Trio angst! Albeit more “vaguely emotional and symbolic” than straight up angst, but I digress. I hope you like it! <3
(sidenote, I did also get inspired to write something to go along with it, but I won’t be able to post that for a while, so keep your eyes peeled in the new year if you’re interested!)
Thank you to @mcytblrsecretsanta for organising this event, it was a ton of fun!!
Forgot to reblog this here when I drew it - admittedly, forgot I had an art account at all, but I remember now and may be posting a couple other things here! (also the mentioned fic, if you were curious, is still in the works... should hopefully be out soon, though!)
These were some pieces I did a while back that were meant to be posted in conjunction with a Hitman AU fic that will now never see the light of day, but I like the pieces well enough to post them!
In going back through my old art I’ve noticed that I’ve been very bad at tagging potentially triggering things, so I’m going to be doing my best to rectify that. If there is something you want me to tag for, please please please let me know!
"Look at the Guiding Star," he told him, and Gavin looked up.
"It's bright," he muttered.
"It's bright and steady. I haven't seen a single flicker up there all night. It means we're on the right track." Even now as he watched there was none. It was a cold and clear night so that might be why, but it had settled something in him. By the way Gavin relaxed next to him, it did so for him as well.
---
@kahnah23 wrote an amazing story (technically speaking, they’ve written several amazing stories, and I am also working on art for at least the Project NEON series because it’s my favourite story ever written, but I digress) called Setting Sun.
I’ve really enjoyed reading it, as it not only kept me hooked chapter after chapter, needing to know what would happen next, but gave me something to look forward to at the end of increasingly difficult weeks. I had to draw something for it, and I also just wanted to thank Kahnah. I can’t wait for the sequel!!
How about a star wars AU were Michael Jones has crossed to the dark side and his friend and companion Gavin Free is trying to save him and return Michael to the side of the Jedi.
@narutochic0 - thank you so much for the request! I may have gone a wee bit overboard with this one. Hope you like it!! <3
Thank you to everyone who has sent in a request thus far!! I love all of them and have been having a ton of fun drawing them!!
I’m going to start uploading them over the weekend - hopefully I should be able to upload all of them, but I’ve still got a couple to finish up so they may be a wee bit delayed. I’ll make a post on Sunday if that’s the case.
Also my requests are still open if anyone still wants to ask for something! Read the original post (here) for further information.
Thank you to everyone who has sent in a request thus far!! I love all of them and have been having a ton of fun drawing them!!
I’m going to start uploading them over the weekend - hopefully I should be able to upload all of them, but I’ve still got a couple to finish up so they may be a wee bit delayed. I’ll make a post on Sunday if that’s the case.
Also my requests are still open if anyone still wants to ask for something! Read the original post (here) for further information.
I have never actually watched the Kings series, but the aesthetics are amazing and I’m always a sucker for competent Gavin, so enjoy Gavin returning after slaying Edgar to claim his crown!
I’m taking requests! They will be used as warm-ups for bigger projects, so the end result may not be Top-Tier Art, but I’ll try my best to make sure they’re something that I’m happy with, and I hope you will be too.
I will draw:
-Any AH member
-Any ship
-Any AU (though if it’s a specific AU from a specific individual, please mention that person’s username so I can check out the AU and properly credit them)
I’d also be up for drawing scenes from fics, especially since I’ve been in need of some new stories to read!
I will Not draw:
-NSFW (nothing against it, just not something I’m personally comfortable drawing)
And as a final note, I do have a ko-fi! If you want to donate anything for any reason, that would be greatly appreciated, but I will also say that if you donate I promise to put more time and effort into your request. Again, it’s not necessary to give anything, I just wanted to mention it!
I’ll make updates as things progress, so be sure to check this blog if you want to know when things should be going up or if there’ll be delays!!
areudirty
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
gamechangershow
stormborns
vaporwave