#background building

[ask-dbd-nea]

Did you have any animals before you got into the realm?

“I wonder if he’s okay, now that I’m long gone…”@hiiamsatan

[ask-dbd-nea]

What do you miss about Sweden? The food? The weather? Any friends?

“We moved just before I turned 16...I don’t remember much from there anymore. A lot of my memories are leaving me, but the ghosts of them are somewhere in my head still...”

“I know for certain I had friends back then. Ones I missed dearly...I’m sorry, I can’t seem to remember their faces...”

[ask-dbd-nea]

🎞

A memory that never fails to come back to their mind, good or bad

 You never forget the first time you die.  Nea had been confused, cold, skulking through the strangely more dilapidated halls of Crotus Prenn. Had it been this dark when she went in? Where was her backpack, her skateboard? She opened her mouth to call out to her friends, but nothing came out but a harsh gasp. Her hands flew up to her throat, eyes wheeling around. There was something horribly, horribly wrong. There was a scream, shrill and high, and Nea’s heart rate skyrocketed, a cold sweat breaking out against her exposed temple. The clammy hand around her neck was only proceed by an eerie whooshing sound, the cold cutting steel of a surgical saw contrasting with the sudden heat of blood splattering across Nea’s chest as it was slashed open. The scream that bounced off the brick walls was her own, echoing and charged with pain and surprise. There was no time to react as Nea was tossed to the ground, back hitting the hard floor and stealing whatever breath she still had from her chest. Above her stood–no, floated–a ghastly sight: a feminine form in a vintage nurse dress, head covered by a grimy cloth bag, blood both new and old flecked her dress and strangely stained skin. With another unearthly shriek, the figure lunged down, hands clamping with inhuman strength around Nea’s neck.In her defense, she struggled as best she could, hands clawing desperately at her assailant’s arms, but there was a pressure at the base of her skull before a deadly snap–As her last breath left her lips, Nea felt her sightless eyes being almost tenderly shut by frigid fingers.--When they opened again, she was in the woods, beneath a starless sky. The glow of a fire peeked through the foliage from a distance, and a strange whispering pull told her she needed to go to it. The feverish heat of her dying wound was fresh in her mind, but as she stood on shaking legs, Nea found her skin hale and whole, if a bit dirty. Squaring her shoulders, she swallowed down her fear and began her cautious trek to the fire, and unbeknownst to her at the time, the beginning of the rest of her life.

[ask-dbd-nea]

I'm really curious if you wanna answer Mun, can we get some intel on those shadows??? I haven't seen a lot of Nea world building!

[[I WAS HOPING SOMEONE WOULD ASK!!

From left to right: Astrid; The culture hound. She owns all the comics and games any 15 year old would dream of! Father works overseas in America with a tech tycoon company, so family is well off. Nea and her became close when Nea defended Astrid from some bullies who made fun of her braces. After that, they were inseparable. She promised to visit Nea in America, though whether she did or not is up to some more backstory I’ll be doing! Wilma: The Cool Girl ™. She originally started following the original trio around because she had a crush on Elias, but after some tense months, she grew close to the whole group, her demeanor softening. Can always be found in the height of fashion, and is the second loudest voice of reason in the group. Elias: The charismatic one. Transferred from a school in Gothenburg to live with his grandparents, he was hot talk around the school for a while, but after being Nea’s assigned partner in science fell into place in her clique and was plenty happy with it. Despite his reputation as only being pretty, he tries hard to be smart and values heart over looks. Is the more knowledgeable one when it comes to worldly natures. Lucas: The big brother archetype. Nea’s oldest childhood friend and neighbor, he is the reasonable if a little mother-hen-minded one of the group. He and Nea used to do everything together so much their respective parents made comments often over coffee that it wouldn’t surprise them if the two got married when they were older. The birthday before Nea moved, he received a skateboard, and promptly saved up all his allowance to buy Nea one too so they could learn together. The trademark beanie she wears was the last birthday gift he sent her before she was taken by the entity. They were a close bunch, very close. It broke her heart to leave Hjo, and although she made new friends, it was hard for her not to see the ghosts of the friends she left behind in them.]]

[mysteriouself]

The Mafia Verse background building - pt 2: The Aftermath

His eyes fluttered open, but the world around him was a blur distorted by pain. The last thing he could remember was the explosion. The deafening blast that had hurled him through the trench like a ragdoll.

He recalled landing in a nest of barbed wire with a sickening thud followed by the ragged sound of air leaving his lungs. The rasp of his breath as he fought to stay awake. Despite his best efforts he'd faded into blissful darkness. Now he was awake and the pain came in waves. Sharp, sudden. He gritted his teeth and tried to push through it, but a sound left him. A pathetic whine akin to a wounded dog. He felt a hand at his shoulder and turned his head, though it felt like the effort might shatter his skull. A woman stood by his bed, her face a soft blur in his fogged vision. For just a moment his heart leapt that it may be Lara come to see him until his eyes caught sight of her crisp white uniform. A nurse. Not Lara. "Easy now. You’re one of the lucky ones." “Do you know if…” He had to stop, swallowing down the lump in his throat, trying to steady himself. “Do you know if any letters have come for me?” “None that I know of.” She answered. “It’s not uncommon. Letters can get lost. Some men have been waiting for months for a response, but it’s hard to get messages through.” He clenched his fists, his nails digging into the mattress, his breath ragged as frustration bubbled up inside him. The nurse noticed the shift in his expression, but mistook it for something else. “I know it’s hard, but you should be grateful. You could have been a lot worse off." Grateful. Lucky. The words echoed in his mind like an insult. Turning onto his side Avallac’h didn’t speak again. He simply lay there staring at the wall. After the nurse departed the silence of the room was deafening. And yet it was nothing compared to the silence from the person who meant everything to him. He’d written her so many letters. Each one full of the hope that she’d be there when he came back. That they’d be together. That he could be the man she dreamed of. He’d poured his heart into the ink, telling her of his longing, his fears. But there had been no reply. Not a single word. Not one letter. He had been hoping she would write back. That she would be waiting for him at the end of this madness. No letters. No word. No Lara. When he closed his eyes it wasn’t the hospital he saw. It was the trenches, the mud, the barbed wire. It was the emptiness. The silence. And more than anything it was Lara’s face... gone from his life. He'd been torn from the hell of the trenches and dropped into the hell of this lifeless hospital room instead. Alone with nothing but the empty promise of recovery, he wasn’t sure who he was anymore.

[mysteriouself]

The Mafia Verse background building - pt 1: The Trenches

The trenches stretched endlessly in every direction as far as the eye could see. Somewhere out there in the dark, beyond the barbed wire and craters, the enemy waited. But it wasn’t them Avallac’h feared most.

It was the silence.

He could feel the weight of the silence pressing in on him, suffocating him in the moments between artillery barrages and the endless drizzle of rain.

Every week like clockwork he would write to Lara. The words flowed easily at first when the excitement of being a soldier was new. When he imagined the glory of battle and the honor of serving his country. But now as the months dragged on and the reality of the trenches wore him down the letters became longer. More desperate. He wrote of the cold, the hunger, the endless waiting. He told her how much he missed her and how he dreamed of the day when they would be reunited.

But the lingering question gnawed at him endlessly. Why hadn't she written back?

The whistle cut through the air, twisted his guts into a knot, dragging him out of his thoughts and into the nightmare that awaited him.

"Up and over, lads!" The Sergeant barked, his voice drowned in the thunderous roar of artillery.

The mud was slick beneath his boots as he climbed up the ladder that led to the lip of the trench. He could hear the sound of the enemy's guns now, the crack of machine guns spitting death across the field.

When the head of the man next to him exploded into a gory mist for having lingered too long at the edge of the ladder it reminded him that he must move and keep moving lest he meet the same end.

And he kept moving. Through the deafening boom of artillery. Through the whistle of bullets cutting the air. Through the heat of a nearby explosion.

Just make it to the enemy trench. Just survive. Just survive.

He barely noticed when his helmet was knocked from his head, or when the bloodied body of a fellow soldier crashed to the ground beside him. Countless losses of friends had numbed him to it by now. All that mattered was the trench ahead.

Just survive. Just make it. For Lara. When he came home he'd be the hero who would sweep her into his arms.

When the battle finally ended and the smoke cleared he stood amidst the carnage and found the silence louder than ever.

He dropped down in the muck of the trench, his back against the cold earth. For the first time since the war had begun Avallac’h let the tears fall. He didn’t know if they were for the men who had died or for the girl who might have forgotten him. Maybe it didn’t matter anymore. He could feel a part of him dying with every passing moment, buried beneath the weight of the mud, blood and countless bodies.

[davidbrussat]

The Nightingale sings, so far

The Nightingale sings, so far

Brickword on the Washington Street facade of the Nightingale Building. (photo by author)

A large square extraordinarily promising brick building arises on the block downtown where hundreds of Providence Journal employees used to park. I just learned today that it will be called the Nightingale Building. Buff Chace, whose work has revived downtown Providence almost singlehandedly, comes from good…

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[marcamatic]

Woo! I did it, all of the background city buildings for season 1 are done!

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This fits into more of an office/admin styled building, I’m also going to use one as the station for the city monorail, I wanted to give it a very simple prefabricated look, similar to the modular pre-fab offices I found online.

And with that the two biggest concept jobs for the current season is done, this with the background character designs where the two jobs I was the most daunted by, Next will be landmarks and the interior rooms, which I suspect will take longer than a week per room because of the level of detail each room needs, but I will post progress images when I get to them.

For now the next big done is the Landmarks which should still fit the one per week formula I’ve been following.

That being said next week I’ll be posting a full catalogue of the buildings I’ve done like what I did with the background extras since I’ll be attending Dublin comic con and won’t have time to work.

Anyway that’s it for this week, Thanks so much to the folks who have stuck with the blog through this section, the progress list is as follows:

Character Concepts

Background extras:42/42

Main Characters: 13/13

Main character re-designs: 5/5

Secondary Character: 14/14

Secondary Character re-designs: 5/5

Weapon Concepts

Main Characters: 12/12

Secondary Characters: 7/7

Weapon Redesigns: 4/4

Scene Concepts

Interiors: 0/24

Landmarks:0/15

Exteriors:39/39

March 5th Update Woo! I did it, all of the background city buildings for season 1 are done! This fits into more of an office/admin styled building, I'm also going to use one as the station for the city monorail, I wanted to give it a very simple prefabricated look, similar to the modular pre-fab offices I found online.