Well, it's time. I've scrounged around for all my original notes and such on this blog, and I'm finally tying up loose ends. I really do appreciate everyone who was here and supported past teenage-me on this ask blog journey. I could not have asked for a better experience.
I mentioned it in that post before, but the thing that made me so proud of this blog when I was running it, was that although the characters themselves are borrowed, the ideas and the plot were all originally mine. I've always had a hard time with original ideas and characters, so it meant a lot that people were so interested in it all in the first place.
Anyways, UTC is typed out notes about how the rest of the plot was supposed to go, as well as some old concept sketches and planning notes from past-me.
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Old Notes
I may have shared them before on my main, but these are some of the initial sketches of when I started drawing Creature™ naga. Before, I had just been drawing him as naga!England, with no discernible personality difference:
I was really in love with the idea of "big snake pet," and as I planned things out, more things slid into place. These are some old notes about how I wanted the blog to function. It kinda helped build the plot too:
Various extended character page and Al's notebook entries:
Another old sketch page of Art:
And here's one of the first few ask comics from my sketchbook before I digitized it:
I did a lot of drawings at school and then transferred them to the computer at home. I also remember staying up late a lot to finish a sketch for an ask more than once. :) It all helped my art improve a TON, and you can tell by just going and comparing the art from the beginning and end of the blog.
Original Plot
"Okay, so what the hell IS Art?" you may be asking, because I never cleared it up lmao.
Originally, I was considering making him some kind of demon? But, I scratched that idea and decided to go along with Arthur's expertise and made him a kind of dragon. Here are two different drawings a handful of years apart:
Ironically, the main drawings here are very similar lmao. It's kind of a shame I didn't get far enough in the plot to reveal him properly.
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Regardless, here are some plot notes, transcribed straight from my high school notebook paper [with present day comments in blue]:
BACKSTORY
MARCH- with Arthur [AL:17 AR:19] for 1.5 years [admittedly I worked backwards to this point lmao- consider that Al went to uni early, and so they're both kinda in the same peer group- I'm also suddenly recalling some USUK college roommate sketches I did unrelated to this blog, that's probably about how they ended up dating for a bit tbh]
NEXT MAY- Art is abandoned, Alfred finds him/brings him home, names "Art"
JULY- breaks up with Arthur
AUGUST- notebook entry
STUDYING ART ARC [AL:19 AR:21]
intro stretch
Art gets sick
calls Arthur
explanation of "cheating"
Arthur meets Art/no luck with research
Arthur stays in Boston for a bit
more research with no luck
Arthur leaves
WORRIED ARC
impromptu visit from Matthew/he finds out [everything up until here is on the blog or in Alfred's notebook- I really didn't get that far, huh]
valid arguments from Matt that this is dangerous- caution but promises not to tell [Matt does seem like kind of an asshole throughout this plot, but ig we have to consider how family may respond to taking care of a mythical creature in your Boston apartment at age 19]
hurried call from Arthur ["I think Art might be-"] knock on the door [at this point, through his own research, Arthur has figured out that Art must be some kind of dragon-hybrid or mythical something, and goes to tell Al]
secret service [Francis] got a tip and here to claim Art [don't ask me what "secret service" or "higher-ups" are specifically supposed to be, teenage-me didn't know either- the point is Alfred is in trouble with authorities- use US government alien area 51 logic]
scuffle and crying fight [phone thoughts] [I literally cannot remember what "phone thoughts" means]
dragon instincts show and harms some men [big reveal part- I remember I had this image in my mind of how by the time I had gotten here with the plot, my art would be much better and I'd be able to draw this scene super cool lmao]
taken away
ANGST ARC
Arthur tries to comfort him/Alfred tries to figure out what to do [this is also the part where Arthur explains the basics of what Art is for the sake of placating the audience]
decides to write a report and submit it [Al decides to basically write up an argument explaining why he understands and knows the most about this creature and therefore should be allowed to keep studying him- let's not worry about the ethics here, that wasn't on my mind in 2018]
eventually wins Art back along with a sum to keep studying him [inform of anything interesting] [he gets to keep Art under the condition that he MUST inform authorities about anything dangerous or abnormal]
press overwhelms him and his school so he transfers himself to live at Arthur's place
delves into the the idea that Art is a dragon [the part where Arthur explains his own research- Art is a dragon-human hybrid, assumed to be created by magic, and literally one-of-a-kind]
EGG ARC
Art begins acting aggressive [this whole bit was inspired by a pre-ask-blog comic I did here]
calls Matt ["You might be right."/"Did you tell them?"] angry bit
might get rid of Art
Alfred finds eggs (2) ["How could I possibly get rid of him?"] [I'm not quite sure what I meant here- I think it was that Alfred was considering Matt's argument that keeping Art around is dangerous and potentially more trouble than it's worth, but then upon finding the eggs, he remembers the responsibility he took on of taking care of Art in the first place]
eggs hatch- one doesn't
Art mourns
baby AJ*** ["Art Junior," I know, I know, I'm so original- but I thought he was a cute concept and an excuse to draw tiny snake boy]
AJ grows up [I really don't have any good way to explain all of this with the baby- asexual reproduction?? faster aging?? again, kind of just an excuse to draw tiny snake boy]
first talking/shock - research explanation [I did have a few things fleshed out though- AJ can talk, since he grows up around Alfred, who can obviously talk, and Art didn't- AJ also acts more "human" because of Alfred as well]
more AJ
higher-ups figure out Alfred is hiding things
argument/they take AJ [let's keep ignoring how vaguely talking about the "higher-ups" makes no sense- obviously Al is hiding things and gets in trouble again]
AJ dies - Alfred research/mourn [the idea here was that the government or whatever took AJ and ended up experimenting with him- the resulting aggression from AJ and the unethical practice of the science ends up killing him somehow- I hadn't fleshed that bit out at all though]
more dragon info with studying Art
lowest point [don't forget that all of this arc is happening while Al is living in England with Arthur- they are truly gay snake dads :)]
SICK ARC
Art gets sick again similar to first time
Arthur bops us with dragon lore [I think what I meant to happen here, or soon after, was the final explanation that the reason Art had been getting sick in the first place was because he was- platonically or not, your choice really- falling in love with a human. don't worry about how this makes any sense or how it works, I hadn't figured it out yet tbh]
sick for a bit
calls higher-ups [he literally can't deal with this situation on his own]
transfer to hospital in Chicago [flies back to the US, I guess?]
anxiety-inducing waiting period
visit- Art is sleeping
doctor explains things [don't worry about why a doctor in a Chicago hospital knows anything about a dragon-hybrid but hey, teenage-me was uh, not really thinking about that]
ability to speak to him???? hooks up machine [I wanted there to be some kind of scene near the end where Al would get to talk to Art somehow for real- I wanted to humanize Art a tiny bit, especially because of the sickness explanation too- I have no clue how I would have ended up implementing this concept]
Alfred talks to Art [Matt stands by open door]
Art dies- emotional moment [yep, I was actually going to end the story by killing off Art- there was no other way I felt I could conclude this kind of story in a way I liked the vibe of. thinking about it now though, obviously there are some other ways I could have taken it]
Alfred cries, walks out of room
interaction with Matt [I think this was supposed to be something like them still having a bit of tension, especially with the implication that Matt was the one who reported Al, but I can't remember what exactly I was thinking here]
end scene with Alfred walking out of hospital and looks at notebook [this was a very vivid image in my mind at the time- I wanted to have this scene where Al is facing all of his grief, not only from his breakup, the death of who was basically like his kid, and then the death of who was probably his dear friend, but also just from the absurdity of the entire magic situation in general- and then he looks at this notebook, where he had been recording it all in a scientific way, and then an increasingly emotional journal-y way- and he just sits with that for a bit, before he goes back to his hotel or car or whatever]
EPILOGUE
never brought himself to publish notebook [I needed him to keep some part of it all as just his]
argument with scientist over both bodies and wins [somehow this made sense in my brain at the time]
travels to where he found Art and dumps ashes
moved back to the US and still talks with Arthur [they don't actually get back together, as much as my little heart shipped USUK, they had depth and complexity for the plot and for Art's sake- Al wasn't lying when he said they argued all the time, they weren't actually all that compatible in this AU]
took a few years but forgave Matt [they are brothers, your honor- the tension between them was intended well but not executed well within the plot- I could definitely have refined it a bit]
dropped college and took a job at thrift store Matt works [I had him drop out/take a gap year because he couldn't handle thinking about his original major anymore considering the grief]
store snake toy scene [I also had him do this because I had another scene in my head where at the store he somehow runs into a little snake toy- I needed the actual real end to be bittersweet and a little hopeful, and not so damn sad lmao]
END
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***Additionally, here's the original idea for AJ:
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A couple things I am pretty proud of that I did sneak into the existing drawings as plot setup:
During the role swap m!a, Alfred comments that he doesn't feel too different, except for a particular warmth radiating from his chest. This was going to be referenced later with the dragon lore, as the source of the hybrid's fire abilities and power.
Alfred considering Art his friend. This incidentally happens right before the initial Art is sick plot post, although I didn't plan that part.
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And that's all! I will, of course, be continuing to leave this blog up as an archive, and if I happen to doodle anything else related to this blog, I'll be sure to rb it here.
Asks are open indefinitely, if you want to leave me any notes or comments. :)
I've considered starting a new ask blog sometime, if those are still things that people do nowadays. It wouldn't be Hetalia-based, of course, but if I do make something, I'll let you all know.
Thank you so much if you've read this far, from the bottom of my heart. I love you! <3
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main blog: @kailjoi
