Echo’s born premature and their immune system’s on the weaker side. Between the frequent hospital visits and overnight stays in the paediatric ward. The only source of comfort is an Oracle plush doll to remind them of their mom while she’s occupied with her hero work.
Decided to try something a bit different while finally pushing out some more fanart. Here’s Nikolaos from @criminallyyoursvn that I tried digitally painting in Procreate. Specifically, I was taking a shot at somewhat redrawing the cg of Oracle’s first vision in the game. I’ve really been wanting to try something a bit impressionistic in general, so made myself an excuse to exorcise that demon. Honestly, I think it turned out fairly solid.
For the process, I started with a layer of magenta and a “pencil sketch” that I didn’t hide or delete (it’s especially visible on the lapels since I wanted to keep the clothes less polished than the face). After that, I layered “paints” with mostly the Wet Acrylic and Oil Paint brushes, occasionally blending between colors or carefully smudging some of it for a similar affect. I also used an overlay layer for a little color correction (color selection is one of the more difficult aspects of digital art; I prefer mixing on a real palette).
After enjoying my time playing this visual novel,I'm very excited about the official release of part two this month.As a way to celebrate this,I decided to create an illustration featuring Nikolaos and my OC Viviane together.
They’re here!! Look at them in their tall, tired glory 🥹🥹
Writer brained rambles under the cut; (Office life)
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They’re your resident soft-spoken introvert that managed to work up the ranks as the research lead; mostly by being an active listener (in actuality; they’re always too tired to give leading questions, so they mostly open with casual topics & let their clients talk their ear off until the conversation eventually leads to the topic at hand. Occasionally nodding along and keeping an easy going atmosphere). This leads to their company (Corton Investments) having a good network of clients & brokers under their roster, which keeps the staff busy with work [for better and for worse for Echo. But at least the paycheck to work ratio is better than what they make as a Hero.].
Due to their unique frame (a walking telephone pole) and gentle personality; they became known as the “Resident Admin”, always the first to be picked out from the crowd, and the first to help when asked. Even if it’s outside of their department, they’ll find a way. The most common occurrences being; interns with trouble navigating the company. One of the common pastimes between company veterans is to take bets on how long a new intern would take to confess to Echo; knowing eventually Echo would turn them down, even with the research dept. Staff warning said interns beforehand of the result. Many don’t listen, with many “I told you so’s” followed.
Their common reason for rejecting the confession was mostly due to the power imbalance; them being in a senior position with an intern, not the best look. Adding onto their workload and personal responsibilities, they don’t have the time or space for relationships.
When interns asked privately, why they don’t do relationships (between staff); many recall one particular relationship Echo had back when they were an intern themselves - a staff member from marketing that looked far too close to be between co-workers (it was never officially confirmed). But after 2 years, that staff member suddenly transferred branches, with a heartbroken Echo in their cubicle. No one knows the exact details, but many came to the conclusion that Richard [Company manager] had something to do with the separation; as he was the one that enforces a “No relationship” rule for the company. Though some in the company rumour mill spun it as a case of abuse of power; with the transferred staff member being the perpetrator. But that was quickly shut down once Echo caught wind of it, and had to set the record straight. Since their outburst, no one dared to bring up the transferred staff member’s name around them, with most of the staff moved on from the story out of respect for their wishes.
They’re a well-respected and important member of company staff, that despite their sudden- infrequent leaves for “personal matters”, it’s mostly overlooked since they can be trusted to return with their share of their work completed, tardiness withstanding. Which helps to Echo’s benefit, since outside of office hours; they moonlight as the city’s most beloved (& mysterious) super hero.
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Extra author notes & doodles;
Thank you so much for reading this far in 🥰
I have so much fun writing and planning out Echo’s story; the descriptive summary above is but 1 part of many little sprinkles of their lore, i plan to make short fan comics with accompanied illustrations/ doodles for future instalments set in the Criminally Your’s universe (most of it are my head cannons, and set prior to the release of Part.2).
Pls go and play the game: https://meant-to-bee-studios.itch.io/criminally-yours
It’s so good and I need more people to be equally CY pilled with me 🤪😘
He's your crush, your coworker, and the villain you need to stop...?
He's your crush, your coworker, and the villain you need to stop...?
i made a character sheet. free to use as you wish, feel free to change whatever you want XD open source ass thing. spent all of ~maybe an hour on it.
Credit: the text in the insert-image box comes from this video, and the text for the top three lines (intense, complex, fruity) comes from this post. The actual image was made with the free NBOS character sheet creator, which is a sort of dated but free and solid text-layout sheet maker intended for ttrpg style character sheet creation.
this is GENUINELY one of the best character development sheets I've ever seen. Cuts right to the core of what you and your readers will glom onto, doesn't waste time on details that don't directly affect the narrative. Stupendous. Effervescent. Finally, some good fucking food
Inspired by a convo on the @criminallyyoursvn discord that Nik’s a Golden retriever-Husky mix (his heterochromia is the Husky side, with the base of a Goldie)