Anyone here a Curse of Strahd fan? 🦇 I thought it’d be fun to picture Strahd in a different light—roaming his castle in something casual instead of the usual imposing armor. I can’t imagine wearing plate armor every hour of the day is comfortable, even for a vampire lord. There’s something strangely eerie yet peaceful about the idea of him pacing the halls like that—still powerful, but more human in appearance. 🏰✨ Despite him being Lawful Evil, this piece came out with a surprisingly calm vibe. I hope you enjoy it! As always, it was made entirely on my phone with just my fingers—no tablet yet. If you have tips or tricks for improving, I’d love to hear them!
I was commissioned some time ago by a author to draw their character Raveres in a tarot card inspired image. She be regal and powerful but have the smugest face imaginable. She was to be styled after the emperess card with " I X " and "Emperess" marks and I was given refs regarding the pose. Except for those hardlines I was given a lot of freedome.
In the beginning I gravited towards to the idea of hee sitting on her throne and her true natuer of brutality literally radiating from behind her. As time went on I put more emphasis on the slayed kraken instead. Its an important event in story that Raveres takes pride in. I loved the imagery of it hanging limp above her as a thropey in her throne room.
Altered her pose and face through out the whole thing and got feedback from the author. The trick was to show her power but not make her too serious. Her leaning on her roman-eusq divine gave her such an carefree psychopath vibe. I took the liberty to make the fabric flow around her to give her that sense of queenlyness.
Before the final render I sent three versions for the author to decide on. We both favoured the ones with the burning background. It gave the vibe of Raveres holding back a storm of violence.
A big part of the process was throwing ideas back and forth with the author about what would fit Raveres. It lacks some of the details and technics of my newer stuff but I'm always gonna like this one.
Thanks for reading!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom/Shipping(s): Elsword; none
Rating: K
Word Count: 2,281
Summary: Another Halloween passes where Add is dragged out to go trick-or-treating, Ciel tries to stop the kitchen from going ablaze, and Elgang learns that the streets are not completely safe.
Notes: This was written for the Elsword Halloween-Mafic Collab you can see here. Be sure to check out everyone’s awesome fanart/fanfics!
Of course he noticed. With most of the month and even the one before it reminding him of the coming day, summer faded and was replaced with crimson leaves and chilly nights. With the streets decorated in black and orange to aisles of candy and costumes down the market stalls, how could he forget?
Which was why Add locked himself in his room, huddled in a blanket at his desk to work on a new project with headphones covering his ears to avoid the sound of children, and possibly more, shrieking into the night. It was getting dark soon and the streets would soon be filled with children and rowdy teens in costumes begging for candy. He enjoyed his sweets, but to beg? The Mastermind scoffed at the notion of acting like a slave again for something he could buy at his own leisure. Staying in Feita last Halloween was a poor decision and he was determined not to have a repeat of that.
“Add!”
He heard his name being said repeatedly in the background. Looking up from his monitors, he took off his headphones to hear the thumping against his door and growled. There were locks on his door for a reason! Add stood up and walked over to open the door to reveal a certain redhead standing at his door.
“What is it, brat?” Add covered his forehead with one hand.
“What are you still doing here?” Elsword asked, “Want to go trick-or-treating with me and Chung?”
“Aren’t you too old for this?” Even though Chung was there, he focused on Elsword because the Rune Slayer was the one suggesting it.
Elsword maturely stuck out his tongue, “Aren’t you too young to have white hair?”
Add twitched and touched his sidebangs in self consciousness, “My hair is natural! And what are you, a gator?” What was Elsword wearing?
“Perkisas!” Elsword cried in offense, “Can’t you tell I’m a dragon?”
If Add looked closer, the horns became more prominent on Elsword, but the cardboard wings stuck out from his back was poorly drawn and the tail dragged on the ground when he walked. He looked nothing like the god of greed. Chung was a pirate with worn out clothes, an eyepatch, and a triangle hat. Was the Hamel prince shaking his head as Elsword was still ranting on about his costume? Add almost pitied him for putting up with all that.
“Ah…” Add nodded, but still thought it was stupid.
“Free candy, free chocolate, what’s not to like?!” Elsword exclaimed.
“We can save some candy for you,” Chung said as he adjusted his eyepatch. “I’ll make sure Elsword doesn’t eat them all.”
Thank gods someone was sane enough to understand him. The idea of getting free chocolate was tempting, but a holiday garnishing itself in the dead and the unnatural was something he could afford to skip out on. Why should he be celebrating things that don’t exist?
“Hey!” Elsword protested, “But he doesn’t even need a costume since he’s part cat and his jacket has ears.”
“That’s not a costume,” Add snatched the jacket away from him before he had the chance to soil them.
“But we’ll get more chocolate if you come,” Elsword said.
“Eeek!”
There was a shriek downstairs. The three of them hurried down to see Ara in the kitchen with cracked eggs on the floor and Ciel letting out a heavy sigh, rubbing his temples in as he tried calming her down. Add was impressed he hasn’t thrown the Sakra Devanam out of the kitchen yet.
“We still have enough to make plenty of batches,” the Dread Lord ran a mop through the tiled floors with Ara stepping away from the mess with a lowered head. “Why don’t you work on shifting the flour instead?”
“If you insist…” She went over to the counter to open a bag of flour when she noticed Add, “Are you going somewhere?”
When did she start baking? Add looked at Ciel for an explanation with the half demon giving him a toothy grin.
“With all these trick-or-treaters, I needed extra hands to make cookies. Wanna join?”
Add rubbed his temples and looked outside the window to see children already out in the streets with their parents and friends. Did he really want to stay home to juggle making sure Ara wasn’t breaking something while dealing with small children until this damn holiday was over? He could resort to stealing Ciel’s cookies, but with the demon butler handing them out to trick-or-treaters and Lu being on ‘cookie duty’, security would be tighter than usual and he wasn’t up to wrestling with neither just for the extra sugar.
The scientist feigned a sigh, “Sorry, but I promised I would go with these losers.” He would rather face Feita ghosts than stick around and see the kitchen become hell.
“Losers?” Elsword protested.
Chung laughed, “We better go before Add changes his mind.”
Damn right he might change his mind, Add grunted to acknowledge that he was ready when he slipped into a pair of comfortable shoes and left with those two. Oh well, at least he could refill his chocolate stash.
For all the complaints he had for Halloween, Add found himself loss for words when their bags were quickly filled up with candy and chocolate. Who knew people could be this generous, or was it because they already ran through a dozen houses with Elsword and Chung persistent on finishing the neighborhood? It almost made up for the dumb questions and comments people threw at him about his jacket. That jacket was hand sewn, thank you very much! And no, they couldn’t touch the ears!
Add had a shine in his eyes when he unwrapped a chocolate bar, biting off a corner to test out its taste and closed his eyes in happiness. Not too sweet, but not too bitter. He opened his mouth for another bigger bite when Elsword shouted from behind.
“What’s that?”
Add covered his ears and was about to shout at the brat for being too loud when he saw it.
A woman stood alone with dark long hair contrasting her pale complexion and covering her face. Her hands reached out to Add, waving at him and moved towards his direction. As she approached them, he caught sight of her face, stark white as her dress. When she noticed them, she opened her mouth to let out a shriek and fell over with a thud.
“G-ghost!” Add stumbled away from her and ran the opposite way, not hearing Chung and Elsword going after him.
It was hard to see what was in front of him and he didn’t want to light up Dynamo to attract the ghost’s attention. He ran to the first thing in front of him and clung onto it with his eyes shut, hoping the ghost would go away if he was far enough. What was a ghost doing here? They weren’t in Feita any more and the neighborhood should be free of demons.
His heart was still pounding when he saw shadows walking past his hiding spot. Trying to make himself smaller was hard to do when he was as tall as most adults, but that didn’t mean he was going to give up on trying. Add froze he heard someone shouting his name.
“Add!” The Tactical Trooper spotted the albino hiding behind a tree trunk, “There you are! We were looking for you!”
“We?” Add noticed the plural. When the scientist noticed the ‘ghost’ from earlier walking behind Chung, someone grabbed him by the back of his collar to stop him from leaving. He whined at being held back, but saw that it was Elsword and turned to see what the redhead talking to someone.
“I thought you weren’t going for candy tonight.” Elsword cocked his head to the side with a puzzled expression.
“I’m sorry, Add!” Ara burst out and leaned over into a bow deeper than needed. There was a big bump formed on the spot where she fell over from earlier, rubbing her face to show white powder smeared on her hand. “Ciel ran out of ingredients and sent me out to buy more.”
Add stared at her, biting the corner of his lips to stop himself from swearing at his mistake. What kind of joke was this? Ara was the ghost? The flour on her face must have been there because she tripped over something and landed her face into the cookie dough until Ciel gave up and sent her away. Heat rose through his cheeks as Add averted his eyes because he felt those three looking at him too. How was he supposed to react to this stupidity when he couldn’t found words to describe the mix of anger and embarrassment bubbling in his chest?
He snorted, “Did you lose your way too?
“Add!” Chung looked at him with disapproval and clicked his tongue before asking Ara in a kinder tone, “You need us to help you?”
Ara nodded, “That would be great! Is that okay with everyone?”
Elsword grinned, “We’re pretty much done with hoarding candy, so no problem!”
Add was glad to sway the topic away from himself, “Yeah, sure.”
If they finished this quick, that meant more cookies, right? He rubbed his hands to blow warm air into his palms from the wind picking up and playing with his ponytail. It was getting cold and he was more than ready to head back (N-not because he was scared or anything. He was tired, yeah.).
Ara smiled, “Let’s hurry before Ciel runs out of cookies to hand out.”
They were greeted with the smell of frosting and sugar in the kitchen with Ciel backing out with a tray of cookies. Placing the tray on the countertop, the half demon dropped rush instructions to them before chiding at Lu to step away from the cookies. There was little time for any of them to argue when Ciel assigned them to their places. Add measuring the ingredients, Ciel mixing the batter, Lu watching the timer to make sure they baked evenly, and Elsword and Chung handing out cookies and candy. They were sweating when the traffic flow outside was slowed down.
“I think someone was too loud and told everyone about Ciel’s cookies,” Elsword collapsed into the couch in the living room. “I think I rather be the trick-or-treater than be the one handing out treats.” His horns were crooked from running around and bumping into things because of his hoodie falling over his face. Chung didn’t look any better with his eyepatch slipping down his face and his hair was a mess from the humidity.
“Are you saying this is my fault?” Lu feigned a gasp of surprise with a laugh, “Ciel’s cookies are too good not to mention them!”
“These aren’t chocolate chip cookies,” Add held up a cookie to eye level. All of Ciel’s cookies were good, but he was a little disappointed to see that his favorite didn’t made it today. Knowing that most of the trick-or-treaters were gone and Ciel was too tired to scold at anyone, he stole a bite and bit one shaped like a white cat. Sweeter than the usual, but the cinnamon and sugar melted in his mouth and made the scientist want more.
“Sugar cookies are easier to decorate,” Ciel handed a cookie to Lu, “Thanks for holding up there. There should be enough for us.”
Lu almost shoved a cookie shaped like a skull into her mouth with a pleased sound of content. She didn’t complain when Ciel chuckled and ruffled her hair with a pat on the head before offering the tray of cookies to the group.
“You decorated all of these? You really outdone yourself, Ciel!” Chung said with wide eyes.
He was looking at assortment of cookies before him, one that had a phoru wearing a pointed hat and purple robes. After cooling down for a few minutes, cookies in the shape of pumpkins, spiders, and apples were decorated with frosting before transferred over to plates. The frosting and glaze took extra time because they were running low on food coloring, but they were lucky to have bought extra from the store.
“I didn’t decorate them,” amusement gleamed in Ciel’s eyes when the boys stared. “Ara did.”
Add turned to see the older woman startled at the sudden attention, shuffling in her seat and looking down at her nails with new interest.
“It was fun giving them different colors and making them smile,” Ara smiled. “You did the hard work and baked them.”
“And now they’re going to be in our stomachs,” Add cackled. “Not bad.”
“Hey, don’t eat all of them,” Lu whined when Add got to a ghost shaped cookie before she did. “They’re mine.”
“Not if I get to them first,” Add glared her.
Ciel sighed, “I made enough for everyone, not just you two. Don’t overdo it or you’ll all get stomach aches.”
“We should do this more often,” Elsword nibbled on the end of a cookie. “It was fun, wasn’t it?”
The kitchen was a mess with flour on the counter and the floor, the trash can filled with eggshells and emptied flour bags, and the kitchen was going to smell like cookie dough for a few hours. His muscles strained from the labor, but it was strange that it didn’t bother Add. It was like a good kind of pain, the kind after seeing satisfying results of an experiment or when the prototype for an invention didn’t explode in his face.
“I guess it was,” Add said quietly, but his face was betrayed by a rare smile.
