#aura cross

[swordsandspectacles]

Aura gets to be a centaur. As a treat

[swordsandspectacles]

Your question was regrettably delayed, but here it is now:

What villain careers did Melody AND Aura AND Matty pick? What motivated them to choose those paths? Did they ever consider a different villainous career?

We aren’t going to look at how long ago this was sent.

I think? And this is hazy, but I think Mel was like. A general anarchy villain???? I think if (when) I play her again there will be a different path for her.

NO IM WRONG I played her as “hero hunter (prepare them)” and it didn’t suit her at ALL. she’s just not built for this.

The only thing I’ll never consider for Mel is Mob Boss. Because that would fix her tbfh. And we can’t be having that.

Matty! Matty however was a mob boss. I liked the dynamic, there was begrudging affection there and I’m a terrible sucker for such things. I selected that pretty early. Canonically, I think it’s Mattyboy’s way of throwing himself a bone, allowing himself a step away from that chronic loneliness. And also, it’s good to have backup. I think he’d have considered thievery, but. This is where we are

Aura, tho I never finished her retri run, was a hero hunter out for blood. She’s my impulsive idiot good-time girl and damn the consequences. I don’t think it was like, a major goal of hers to go out and kill particularly but? Uh. That’s where we got to in pursuit of revenge and in her chronic not knowing where to stop.

She would also have made a great thief tbh. Honestly it would’ve been healthier for her if she went that route.

But who am I to deny women’s wrongs

[swordsandspectacles]

A little snippet from a bigger something that struck me like a brick to the head tonight

It’s fun trying to. Visualise telepathy. Also I like this brush

[swordsandspectacles]

Things I didn’t expect from Aura’s playthrough; for her to sit up and go “Oh hey there-“ @ Argent

Ramblings under the cut

These were all meant to be longer but I’m still figuring out a lot and - comics aren’t a thing I can really do. I’m learning.

THINGS I LIKE before I start to muse on the nature of Aura’s bisexuality

-Aura’s speed bubbles cut her off from Argent and Ortega. This is ! Intentional. I felt clever about it.

-Light through blinds like cage/prison bars on Aura and Argent, but not Ortega.

- Argents sword at opposite angles to the bridge cables! It’s satisfying. The arm + sword should probably have like a 5° clockwise angle shift though. Argents taking up very little space in the panel but the hand/sword breaks through, she’s so imposing, suddenly, she’s breaking the border, and the bridge cables are sort of like a net around Maneater. The sword + cables behind her also box her in.

Bonus doodle for sticking with me so far

Aura and Argent are both SHORT.

Also argent gets fluffy angry ghibli hair. I think it would be funny if the hair floofed up when angry tho that’s. A bit of a dead giveaway with the nanovores- anyway———

Aura’s having fun.

She’s! A weird character to play. Mel’s a fallen hero original, Matty isn’t but he fits the world well (he’s sort of a refugee from his original setting and likes to pretend he belongs elsewhere. Aura is too (she’s. She’s his mum in basically every other au) but she plays it off better!

So the whole run is a bit more “let’s! Have fun!” Than actually. Honestly building the character thoroughly. It’s an Au of my oldest oc! My favourite girl! Hell yeah!

Plus in superhero universes she’s usually a bit of a superwoman-sort-of-a-vibe so it’s nice to see her with the gloves off being horrible. Because it does come fairly naturally to her.

But yeah! The “Maneater” moniker lends itself to ‘oooo femme fatale’ but she’s equal opportunities on the eating, she’s bi. Generally in a sort of “lmao doesn’t everybody have crushes on other girls though???” Way, she’s sorta clueless. She’s also got a heavy streak of “I’m here for a good time not a long time so I’m gonna take everything going please and thank you veeery much!” By which I mean I think Chen’s the only person she isn’t making a pass at.

She leans more to attraction towards men, but it’d be like 60/40 if I had to put numbers on it. There are universes where she has like two and a half wives, she’s out here vibing.

[swordsandspectacles]

Meet Aura Cross, aka…. Maneater!

I think she wears the new look pretty well… going to go out on a limb to say she does too.

I almost called her “Hearteater” and tbh if Sidestep wasn’t so goddamn at war with their own emotions I probably would have, but “Maneater” has this like… emotional half-step back from Hearteater in my mind?

ANYWAYY, happy with this piece, I’ve been asked once already if it’s traditional or digital (it’s digital but I’ve spent so much money on faux-trad tools)

Hunted down the ‘vintage comic/print’ vibe and I think I got it! Now I wanna do MORE of it.

[swordsandspectacles]

Having some thoughts about Aura’s hair and hair length through the years.

So like. Absolutely unrealistically long in the cuckoo era, I have had hair approaching this length and I know what a pain in the ass to have.

Consider however:

- I like it

- messing with your hair is a great way to NOT go stir crazy if you have a lot of time to yourself.

Aura had some mixed feelings about the hair- pride in that it’s something she knows how to maintain, frustration at all the maintenance required.

Post first escape, it gets braided/put in a bun/pinned up like. 85% of the time. Maybe she’d pull the whole shebang out and aquaint herself with a straightener for Halloween, but other than that it’s out of the way- though she refuses to cut it.

How does it work with the sidestep suit? POORLY next question-

(Seriously though. Can’t have it outside the suit bc identifiable + grabbable … but shoving your hair down the back of your shirt isn’t it either.)

Mixed feelings about the hair aside… obviously, having your head shaved is fucking miserable.

When it’s growing out post-escape she fucking hates it, has NO clue how to style it (‘shove that shit in a braid, comb your fringe and let gravity do the work’ is a valid stylising method).

Logically she knows ‘frequent trims will help the hair grow healthy’ but she cannot bring herself to cut it, so it winds up sorta- scraggly. It’s too short to effectively braid, so she throws it in a ponytail if she does anything, which she doesn’t really like.

I 100% don’t think Aura’s connected her own feelings about her hair to her choice to give Maneater a fucking mane of jellyfish-tendril looking nonsense. Like if you pointed it out to her she’d go “oh you motherfucker that’s brilliant, I’m so good, goddamn-“ but in reality/internally it’s “what the hell how do you do that unintentionally aura what the fuck-“

Anyway. That’s enough of that. Maybe I’ll do similar for Melly. Matty isn’t getting one that man ruffles his hair in the morning and goes ‘eh good enough’ and only cuts it once it gets in his eyes.

Also yeah I drew these at like 3 am but auras expressions are fun to exaggerate a bit

[swordsandspectacles]

So this was actually two entirely seperate sketches of Aura and Jonah @the-cooler-sidestep (masks au)

But it. It looks like he’s just said something she kinda finds both confusing and offensive, which. That’s objectively funnier to be entirely honest.

[swordsandspectacles]

Mixed bag:

My Crow and Iesult (And @the-cooler-sidestep’s Shielan) from a dragon age tabletop I wrote into the ground.

Melody but an angry cat-horse.

Aura! Beloved, in a random outfit I found on twitter and also with some swirlies.