I really need some joy today, so here's an update on my WIP! Plus, it's not a huge spoiler anymore since, uh, we know what Alice is...
Fog is still giving me issues (i do not understand volumetrics AT ALL). Lol pls ignore that the giant statue of Alice is floating slightly off the ground. Also, I clearly don't know how to properly light a scene with fog because the floating lights keep glitching?!?!? Sigh. But I'm close, and I'm proud of the progress!
Next up, I need to make the River Styx and Central Processing, and then I think I'll be ready to shoot some more 🧐
“Death watched him. But death had walked beside him everyday of his life. So Cassian stroked his thumb along her palm and said, ‘Hello, Nes.” -A Court of Silver Flames
Death's work is not actually constant. There are assistants. Lesser gods. Back-up psychopomps.
Death, now and then, gets to take a break. A little time for Themself.
No one really knows where They go in those times. Somewhere on Earth, most of Their associates think, for They have an especial affinity for that little planet. It is there that They have come closest to living as if They were not what They are.
On Earth, once, They had a wife. Well, still They have a wife, for divorce would be impossible, but the wife, that accursed witch Agatha Harkness, most know, stays away from Death for reasons that are not widely understood or, if they are, at least are not widely discussed.
Yes, on Earth Death has a wife. They had a son there too, once, but he passed on young (though older than he should have been and OH, the chaos those six earthly years caused!) and now his spirit dwells in a peaceful space in Death's domain. Now and then Death goes and stays with him, and those spirits and beings who have somehow seen the two together report it a strange sight indeed, for with Their son, Death is different. Less grand. Less cold. With Their son, Death is a playful, loving parent.
When Death takes one of Their little breaks and does not go for a long visit with Their son, that is the time when no one knows where They go. None would be able to find the place. Well, one might, but she would not bother. She, as all know, stays far away from Death for the reasons which only the two of them truly know. Something about the son, and the loss of him. The loss after over half a decade of life that he should not even have been allowed and OH, Life Herself still complains bitterly at times, still absolutely BITCHES about covering for Death in those years.
"Little Sister, how it hurt," says Life.
And Death smiles, muttering some loose apology.
So Death goes and hides away on Earth, now and again. None but one could find the place They rest. The little cabin is now, as it always has been, hidden away from prying eyes.
It is a simple place, quiet and still. Not in regular use for centuries, frozen at a moment when everything shattered. Death goes and steps inside, looks around. In this place, for a space of time that to Them seemed less than an instant, They pretended to be human. To be ordinary. Here, for a little time, They were Rio Vidal, and she was simply living her life, happy and in love.
Thin hands drift over the top of an old table where a hundred or more meals—and more than meals, but that is private—were joyfully eaten. On the table, skewed from its usual place at the center, sits a bowl of fruit. There is an apple. There are two plums. There would be a lemon, but that was taken long ago, in quite a rush.
Death goes up, to the top floor of the cabin, and enters a bedroom. It is not perfectly neat. The bedclothes are mussed, thrown back at one side as if someone had just gotten up and not bothered to settle them back into place. The press stands open, though that was from the night before the last morning.
Agatha never was as orderly as she might be.
At the foot of the bed stands that which Death most dreads now. It has waited all these centuries, never filled. Death's fingers trace the intricate carvings, the runes and decorations that Their own hands carved into the wood, marking a pleasant place for a small life to rest. Bending down, They take up a little coverlet that lies smooth and neat in the cradle, a tiny quilt of bits and pieces, edged in fine green silk They had brought once from a work excursion and which Agatha, Their wife, had been overjoyed to have.
"This will be perfect," Agatha had said, "for green is your colour, and he is your son."
Death had smiled at that, had hugged the witch They loved and wed, and then had felt the little life growing in her belly shift and kick. Falling to Their knees, They had pressed their hand to the spot and felt another kick.
"Hello, son," They said, for They supposed the movement was the boy's way of greeting Them.
That had been the moment They suspected something was wrong. The moment when They realized that by fathering Their son, They might perhaps have doomed him. Still, They had pressed the feeling down, had looked up at Their wife and smiled as she stroked Their hair.
"He loves you so," Agatha said.
"And I love him," Rio nodded.
And Death fought aside every scrap of worry then, every horrible shred of foreknowledge, and Rio had stood and led her wife to sit on the edge of the bed.
"You should rest, my love. You and our son should rest."
"And will you stay with us?"
Remembering that night, Death smiles, and tears cloud ancient eyes.
"Always," Rio chokes out, clutching the little blanket to her chest as she weeps for what could never be.
(higher quality under cut - purposely lowered here to match game)
As for context as to how we get here from Death's... Design,
I see a lady with a hat and fancy dress, and while I would've loved to draw snotlout in a dress, it disagreed with me.
He has the eyes on his hat to symbolize his helmet bolts, though I forgot the pupils. His hands are making the heart for the consistent glowing dot in the center of Death, otherwise I think the rest is self explanatory.
....
"I think we should build a statue... of me. As thor. Snotlout as Thor." ~ approximately the quote from snotty in When Lightning Strikes
What would you rather do- Find the Pieces of Eight to free Calypso of her human bond and earn her trust? Or Find the Infinity Stones to impress and meet Death Herself?
