When a freak tor.nado swirling with winds of pure black and white strikes Hometown, Kris and Susie are swept off to a foreign Dark World. They crash-land into a western town lost to time.
Local sheriff Ralsei greets the suspicious newcomers. It turns out that Kris and Susie aren’t the only Lightners who’ve been stranded by the (un)natural disaster. They come across their old neighbors in new forms, transformed to fit the setting. Susie and Kris themselves have been assigned outlaws. The two form an unsteady alliance with Ralsei to solve various mysteries and crimes plaguing the dusty region of Nowhere.
Peril assaults them at every turn. It turns out a certain Knight has placed a bounty on The Rune Gang. They don’t know which Darkners (or Lightners, for that matter) to trust.
Frankly, Kris and Susie just want to go back to Hometown. But hey, if they get to fuck around in a spaghetti western-inspired world before finding a way back, then they’re game.
The Westerune AU takes place in an environment suspiciously similar to a point-and-click adventure game. That’s because… it is! Wow!
THE SOUL
In this AU, the SOUL acts as the in-game cursor. It exists as a tool that helps characters interact with the world. The Westerune AU pretty much takes place within a point-and-click adventure game world, inspiring the overall look and feel.
The CURSOR can change shape, morphing to indicate when something can be observed, grabbed, spoken to, etc. The SOUL is its own entity that may or may not have some surprise abilities, but by default does not necessarily possess/directly any one character.
Kris is currently the only one who can see the SOUL/CURSOR. (Supposedly.)
KRIS
The boss. Back in hometown, Kris is your average prank-pulling teenage punk. In the Dark World, they’re a daring fingergunslinger sporting the biggest bounty on for being Nowhere’s Most Wanted. Why is that, anyway…?
SUSIE
The brawns. Not long before the tor.nado she had just settled into Hometown. Westerune Susie starts off as a firebrand and dubious frenemy to Kris. Eventually she teams up with them and Ralsei. Susie still maintains her spitfire temperament… especially when she senses a threat.
RALSEI
The babyface. I mean the, uh, sheriff of Nowhere. Though he tries to be intimidating he mostly isn’t taken very seriously. He’s determined to prove himself worthy of wearing his badge.
THE ROARING BANDIT
The ????. They are known by many names. There's a rumor that they will bring the first and last nightfall to Nowhere. Their shadowy visage matches their Big Iron, a transforming blade of pure midnight. A run-in with this outlaw could mean an eternal goodknight.
Seriously though, who is this mysterious figure? And why are they so hellbent on tracking down The Rune Gang?
NOELLE
The beloved. Childhood friend of Kris from the Light World, she tags along with the outlaws during a fateful meeting in Chapter 2. Her personality is mostly the same, except now she’s also a fingergun-wielding badass on the run!
BERDLY
He's in this AU too.
OTHER DARKNERS
More on your favorites (including some Lighners) coming in later posts! We've, uh, already run out of paper to print on. Luckily fan fiction websites are known for having a lot more room for publishing.
In this we introduce the basic premise, setting of the AU. And of course the main characters!
@thewarnerbrothers wrote the text, while I provided the illustrations!
(We came up with the idea of Westerune being a point-n-click adventrure game, so I wanted to give the illustrations and character art look in a way. I was heavily inspired by Sam & Max: Hit the Road (1993). This is my first serious attempt at pixel art please be nice fdgéldk)
Hope you guys enjoy the post! 🥺💖 Follow this blog for future posts and updates!
"I hate gouache" "gouache is so hard to use" gouache is incredibly forgiving. not as overly forgiving as oils, not as fast paced as acrylic or acrylic gouache or as meticulous and layered as watercolor, but pliable and revivable and perfectly pigmented. she is your friend. she is a friend to practically every other medium and wants to help you. fuck the gouache haters. if gouache has 1000 fans, I'm one of them. if gouache has only one fan, it's me. if gouache has 0 fans then I'm dead.
what they don't tell you about learning to draw is that at a certain point of obsession you start to see everything as a potential reference. i frequently have to force myself to stop breaking the general public and my surroundings down into illustrative components during conversations and everyday tasks.
you don't have to if you don't want to, but you COULD be the first person to draw house of leaves ponies. just a thought
After all...Why not? Why shouldn't I do it?
After a bit of...concerningly more encouragement than I thought from the public, and partially inspired by @johnnytruantsgf's design of their own johnny horse I figured i'd make my own.
Aswell as wrestling with the thought of designing Johnny's cutiemark, I've gotten really great ideas from all of you! I decided to land on horse apples, or osange osange. Technically edible but frequently described as repulsive, and a double entendre for "bullshit".
jbbartram-illu
vaporwave
stormborns
theartofmadeline
ellievsbear
