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follows/likes from asura-demon #warning: contains phosphorus is my work

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oh lil bunny, how we’ve come so far

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we are so fucking back

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we are so fucking back

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hellrazer n nitrabunny, world’s middest [wip]

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my squinchent #MySquinchent

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finally got a new stylus. celebrated by redrawing the nitrabunny concept art for the classic and revised modern fits

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waiting on a new stylus for my drawing tablet, feeling very rep-oriented lately

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you know the writing delusions are good when you’re hyped for every single character you’ve got

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more importing dtdev from twitter!!!

and as usually very unimportant and uninteresting

SQUAD RANKS

AKA the Player System

i’ve already exhausted the fact that dare to die was originally a video game pitch — and i might’ve already even said that the ranking system is based on the player numeric system you’d find in a multiplayer co-op game, like an arcade cabinet; or, more specifically, home console 00’s splitscreen game. even more specifically — shrek 2’s color coding!

… which is out of order here but basically;

P1 - Command, P2 - Defense, P3 - Strategy, P4 - Demolition

notably, the Dare to Die team is missing one ‘Player’, P4.

instead, the fourth slot is filled by a COM ‘Player’ — a member who operates with greater knowledge, clearance, and power than a real ‘Player’; essentially operating as an NPC Striker.

this is not only because their designated purpose necessitates guaranteed mission success, but also because their P1 [Nitrabunny] is simply a promoted P4 unit; filling both roles for the team.

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no greater feeling than showing my g-mama some nitrabunny art and hearing that her rabbit helmet looks “ugly and scary”. #ObjectiveComplete

now let me tuck into why it’s so ugly and scary for anyone who might care

nitrabunny is not supposed to be a “cute” superhero. she’s not marvel’s white rabbit, though her villain attire takes heavy inspo from her —

her helmet is emblematic of her dehumanization. the ‘eyes’ aren’t for you to relate to, to empathize through — they’re tools of survival. they trace sound like a prey animal would; they’re mounted to the sides of her head the way a prey animal’s are. she’s deprived of the humanity of being given a face that can emote — even the little, static painted detail of her ‘mouth’ i still go back n forth on, because i don’t believe she (as we meet her) would stand so strongly against the intent of its design

before she’s a person who wants to save people, she’s a weapon meant to destroy them.

both are heroic, both are meant to help. but this is somebody whose intentions you aren’t supposed to be certain of. i want the idea of seeing these bright red lenses focusing in on you at your darkest moment to strike fear and dread into you at a point when this is all you can feel, already.

she, like the other members of her team, is a reformed weapon of mass destruction.

she, and the others, should look the part.

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more composite notebook sketches

sarah seraphim the hellrazer!

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dtdverse is p obv a tentative name but the concept of replacing it with a decided publisher Name is kinda scary ngl

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og dtdemo notes — the basic outlines for the beginning stages of the two main characters (redesigning red ryder and the huntsman from RED)

the other two, cobra and rep, would come later — first as gameplay mechanics (rep doing supply deploy; cobra a summonable NPC striker assist) and later as potential alternate campaigns (rep/bunny, cobra/grizzly) replacing your fire and adaptive abilities with acid projectiles and AI decoy assistants

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oh maybe also worth mentioning they had unique power-up/healing mechanics

coney would have various neoherb vaporizers — mutated plants that provide various medical and combat benefits, like increasing pain tolerance to clear misses or slowing the rhythm she fights to

grizzly would be able to collect neoherbs while exploring, creating custom blends of rolled cigarettes to lesser, passive effect but with more range in benefit; each herb temporarily increasing its own unique stat and combinable in any fashion

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og dtdemo notes — the basic outlines for the beginning stages of the two main characters (redesigning red ryder and the huntsman from RED)

the other two, cobra and rep, would come later — first as gameplay mechanics (rep doing supply deploy; cobra a summonable NPC striker assist) and later as potential alternate campaigns (rep/bunny, cobra/grizzly) replacing your fire and adaptive abilities with acid projectiles and AI decoy assistants

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some more DTDverse tech that’s been around a bit more: audio library micro-discs, or listdisks, are mini disc drives that contain a 8-12 track mix of songs. they’re sold everywhere from corner shops and newsstands; to music stores and department malls. they’re sealed in a heavy paper casing; printed with a customized template design and authentication barcodes. they’re meant to be torn open and promptly discarded.

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its so fucked up that marvel rivals.

i just found the “flopazine” (one-use floppy disk digital magazine download) paper wrapping case design for my ‘starburn’ logo debut from 3/4 years ago. yay for more DTDverse tech!

the back cover teasing a video game UI reimagining project i was gonna do for marvel nemesis — as a hero shooter (+ sequel to the original FDNB poem? apparently??)

it was one of the two in-universe games i was using to tease DTD’s game demo launch (also never happened): a game both rep and coney play excessively; despite the imperfects roster being hastily redesigned variations of their own team after GA’s post-DTD publicity crisis (nitrabunny/solara, cobra/wink, rep/hazmat, etc.)

was kind of a tongue-in-cheek ref in honor of the original game inspiring so much of DTD very unconsciously until i suddenly saw it

but now a HERO SHOOTER called MARVEL NEMESIS isn’t a cool retro throwback concept it’s a parody of the game that exists … which is fine!! cus that’s sooo funny tbh, but i dont see rep playing horndog royale marvel rivals

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i have notes for and about the project that eventually became dare to die dating back to 2022. i wonder if it would be worth posting some of them tonight?

as kind of a temporary farewell/small peak into the inner workings of DTD’s story at its core

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here’s a bit to sample for interest —

— but to give a brief intro, sometime in 2021 i began writing some secret lore into my graphic art; linking every piece with shared themes, similar settings; reoccuring names, progressing stories; scraps torn from a near-future dystopian state, the Acquistioned States of America, and shot into ours. each piece serialized, catalogued, and released to ‘us’ by the unseen, unheard, undercover rebel producing the art.

‘he’ was nova. ‘i’ was ash. ‘we’ were starburn017. hannah montana rules. basically.

2022 would introduce nitrabunny, the combustible bioweapon; alley cat, a monastery student with a faulty cyber-prosthetic; and dollface, a horror film about an insecure young girl who can’t feel pain.

2023 wouldve began with the introduction of Player4; an early 00s gaming mag promoting the highly anticipated sequel to a game about a young, cocky red-clad officer and a gruff, jaded veteran mercenary coming up against the evil mega-corporation the rookie has just betrayed.

his name was fox ryder. he would fight the iron fist of his tyrannical former master, silver wolf — and his lethal pet assassin, viper. alongside his two closest allies: a hacker named lilypad; and a grizzled mercenary known as the grizzly.

it was going to be a foreshadowing of bigger, grander things to come when i had the time and resources to do them properly.

then i got a dm. and it wasn’t, anymore.