Dialogue sprite for Iago! The antagonist of Othello and new member of N Corp.
His design is based on Shun, my headmate. It was cathartic to put ourselves in this villain's mind. He is obsessed with ruining Othello's life, and stops at nothing to achieve it. But he is also rational to a frightening degree, when he silences anyone after using them to carry out his plans. A careful coward if you will. He never took the surefire way of just outright killing Othello himself, instead he wanted that person to stoop to his level and be so disgusted by what they were made to do that they choose death at their own hands. Iago is my schizo voices personified. It's kind of comforting to be hated so relentlessly. I also feel bad for him, as his inferiority complex to Othello is so pathologic. Hating someone else to live is still depending on them to give yourself value. I wonder if there will ever be a point for he and the rest of N corp experience a genuine change of heart and work on setting themselves free.
Been thinking of the Wuthering Heights mirror world for my Sinners.
Shou <- Heathcliff
Desdemona <- Cathy
Emilia <- Hindley
Cassio <- Mr Earnshaw
Fajie <- Linton
Ermine <- Nelly
Sirin <- Edgar Family Butler
Othello <- Josephine
Thrones <- Matt
(FYI: Desdemona, Emilia, Cassio and Othello are characters that make up Sinner 12’s story)
Here’s the silly part.
I was thinking of how to fit this into Fajie’s story, because like how is a white English family gonna give birth to Fajie? How do I fit this into her story? The character she was based on in Slow Damage, Towa, is the son of the Takasato-gumi, the local Yakuza organisation that runs her district. And they keep trying to get her to rejoin but she doesn’t wanna. So I’m thinking what if the Edgar family serves that function here? Let’s make them Japanese 😭
So now we have Meiji era Wuthering Heights instead of Victorian era. Same colonial themes, just different backgrounds. Shou is still this wild bird they nabbed off the streets and raised in Wuthering Heights Manor (who are still English?..) They’re in a decline so when Desdemona found a partnership with Fajie, that was their golden ticket out of impending poverty.
But they sure look down on them, because like how dare this foreign family have more wealth than they do… their assets must be appropriated!! Fajie herself never really cared for money, so she was glad to handwave everything off to Desdemona. It couldn’t have been better for the Wuthering Heights family. However, Emilia and Othello continues to berate her despite her gaining them a huge favour in the first place.
She only has Shou and Ermine to rely on emotionally. Desdemona probably told Shou to leave on his own, because the Bird’s gonna leave the nest sooner or later. Even though he wanted to stay, he was told he’d be of no help, so he did leave. Desdemona told Ermine to leave too, when she officially marries into the Edgars. So when Iago (representative of N Corp) came to ruin everyone’s lives, she had nobody to rely on.
When Shou came back (in his Wildhunt timeline ahead), Desdemona had been turned into a strange monster (announced dead on paper), and Ermine is the only one who from Wuthering Heights that survived. He didn’t know about Iago, so naturally he suspected the Edgar family was behind it, and so signed up to work there, while Shou is driven mad with grief and regularly sends hordes of forest birds their way to wipe out the Edgar Family.
That’s the main plot. Here’s about the other IDs. I thought it’s really funny that Thrones would be Matt, considering he was revealed to be a fake in the main storyline like.. certified Mimicry moment. And Sirin being a butler under Ermine would absolutely terrify her. She’s already scared of him as it is, now she gotta be his understudy. And Fajie Linton I imagine would be like Taku’s bad end, where he’s malnourished and on life support to keep fighting back against the onslaught of wild birds.
I wanted to get these blorbos out of my head so bad, they escaped containment.
Left to right, Desdemona -> Emilia -> Othello -> Iago.
Long story below if you fancy a reading-
They belong to the Killer Whale Office, an Office that specialises in Whale technology. They work for U Corp, using their singularity fairly often. But that comes at a price, so the Office often find themselves doing errands for bigger companies like retrieving cargo or live Mermaids to extract oil from. Beyond these 4 here, there are also Cassio, Bianca and Roderigo but I don't really have a firm vision on their design yet.
Othello is their current leader. They do most of the client talking and logistics of each trips out. Their weapon is a harpoon gun. They're also a veteran of the Smoke War, and prefers to stay out of the City, even if it means facing unknown dangers in the Outskirts. There is large scar on the side of their jaws. It was dislocated in the war, and they had to be force fed food through that gaping wound in their mouth.
Emilia is the first mate and of the Office. He is talented and got promoted to Grade 2 Fixer after joining, now outranking his leader by one grade. (I don't know what's the City's take on trans people, but Emilia is trans). He doesn't particularly like anybody, and is prone to cussing like a sailor. His motive for joining the Office was precisely to run away from the City, where he felt smothered by the people that inhabits it. No matter what universe he lands in, Emilia will always be a shit talker.
Desdemona is their coordinator. She doesn't dive much, unlike the others, but she's still equipped with a wetsuit in case their ship is attacked. While the others explore, Desdemona stays above water to monitor and communicate with other seaborn vessels if needed. She is a kind girl that always tries to help others. Othello is very harsh on her because of that. Emilia also dislikes her, as he thinks she is too weak to survive on her own despite having so much idealism that she can’t back up.
Iago is the youngest fixer of the Office. He hates Othello, despite the latter treating him like a beloved son. There isn't a logical explanation for his hatred. If I have to say, I guess it's because he couldn't bring himself to believe in a genuinely self sacrificing love. It couldn't exist in his worldview, so he had to kill this person that keeps triggering him. He got along with Emilia best, but that's not saying much since they were both very aloof. However, Iago became jealous of him, after he was promoted and favoured by Othello. After facing the Pallid Whale, Iago had an idea to feed them all to it. Not gonna sugar coat it, he just wanted these people to die.
First, he got Cassio injured in a duel with Roderigo of the Twin Hooks pirates. He then brought Cassio back, and told Othello that Cassio was trying to stop a pirate from kidnapping a random girl, Bianca. Iago was the one who killed Roderigo, but claimed that Bianca did. Since the Twin Hooks were a subsidiary of the Middle, they are going to chase down Cassio with a vengeance and soon the entire Office for sheltering him. Othello didn't want to, but they sternly abandoned Cassio behind and immediately headed out to the Lake to avoid pursuers.
After that, Iago stole Resonance Tuning Fork that Desdemona usually keeps, so Othello would get really mad at her. Then he gave the fork to Emilia, who he knew also disliked Desdemona. When they were about to get swallowed by the Pallid Whale, Iago stayed inside a preserved box where he would remain entirely unaffected by the pallidification. Those three that were left behind had to fend off the Mermaids for weeks, barely staying sane from it all.
Desdemona was the first to collapse, as her mental state was not good after being scolded constantly by Othello and Emilia. Seeing her fall, it only made them both more angry. Emilia was impatient, not knowing when Iago's going to come out and tell them this was all a prank or something. Othello was worn out by distrust, and moderately spiralling to the Pallidification. Fighting its influence, they started to question why they were so harsh with Desdemona to begin with. At first, Emilia blamed her for losing it, as she's always so airheaded but when Othello couldn't believe it was a coincidence, Emilia faltered for a second and endured a nearly fatal hit from the Mermaids. Then he confessed he was the one who had a hold of the fork all this time, when Iago probably took the other Singularity and is now gone, far escaped from them. Othello took this to mean betrayals from every front, from Cassio to even Iago and now Emilia. The pallidification rapidly consumes them, as they questioned what they had done wrong to cause their people so much hatred and malice.
It was then that Desdemona pleaded for him to listen to her, that she alone had not betrayed him, nor will she ever begin to. She has always been chided for her innocence, but today it takes on a different meaning. And despite believing himself to be most worthy of surviving this ordeal, Emilia told Othello to keep their head up, as he's going to risk everything on this Resonance Tuning Fork. By fusing all three into one, they just might survive the Pallidification and the constant onslaught of Mermaids. Ironic it is, to resist becoming one with the Whale, they became one with another. A new entity was born inside the Pallid Whale, a human in appearance, but its mind were made up by 3 different people. It longed to find the sparkling golden bough, the one thing that can restore its original forms and bring justice to the poor lives cut short at the jaws of evil.
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
This parasite lives inside the Pallid Whale until the LCB extracted the golden bough from its heart and freed the remaining contents into The Great Lake. It was taken under research as an abnormality and distortion, but it was neither any of that. Seeing as how it's not breaking the Laws of the Head by existing, Limbus Company recruited it as a Sinner in their extended programs. Its codename is Othello, and its title, "Jealousy".
Did you know Jealousy was also used to mean passion akin to lust and zealousy? It's also used to describe distrust, wrath and paranoia by proxy. I think the root of this feeling comes to desire, and in turn, entitlement to somebody. You think something should be yours, so you're mad when things don't go the way you want. This causes you to lash out at everything, and to claw onto what should only belong to you. In the story, Iago treats everything like it should be his, and he is so convinced by his ego that it goes unquestioned. But really, he lacks a sense of self, and his emptiness can't be filled by removing others from his sight.
Othello's conflict here is the guilt of living, of having a life others do not have, of being an object of jealousy. They survived the Smoke War while others died, and they chose to run away to the safest place they know, the dangerous and unknown body of water outside of the City. In constantly risking death, they convinced themselves they're being worthy of life. They abandoned Cassio for supposedly getting everyone in danger, while they themselves are actively endangering everyone by going to the lakes. In their own Canto, they will meet up with Cassio again, and see how he has recovered without a smidge of guilt, and even rebuilt the Killer Whale Office with its new batch of recruits already. Of course, why would he feel guilty when it was Othello or Iago who lead everyone to die? Othello will struggle with guilt, innocence, complicity and wilful ignorance in their Canto. Not that I've began to write that yet.
