Featured Avatar: Illinois
Ask about her on the State of Disunion Sketch/Ask blog IT WORKS NOW!
(thank you anon for pointing out the issues to me)
She has appeared in a several comics now, notably the first three of this whole series. My favorite being when she wore a lame-duck on her head while suggesting laws she knew would upset the South. No one else seemed to like that one but I did.
It pretty much summed her up. She is so done with caring if anyone likes her so long as the right thing is getting done.
Illinois is a snarky, dry-humored state who is all about hard work. Occasionally other state’s come up to make sure she is actually taking leisure time. She has trouble stopping when something needs done. She doesn't hyper focus in an ADHD way, she just hates to stop until something is done, and she usually feels things need to be done.
She has nothing against farm work- and in fact has gone back to pig farming now that she is no longer the Liaison State to Columbia (The state representing the president). She claims it is “cleaner” work the government work was. However, she much prefer her cities and the hustle and bustle that come with those. She also has a head for big business which makes her formidable in any business. In fact she is one of the State’s CEO fears because not only can she see through his BS, she can break it down in ways that explains it to other state’s.
He usually resorts to slandering her or her humans and being state Liaison both during Lincoln’s term and Obama’s term has given him a LOT of slander to throw at her over the years to keep the State’s from listening to her.
Missouri sometimes callas her “Cassandra” as a joke.
Her hobbies, aside from the previously mentioned Pig Farming, are chess, strategy video games, and drag.
She is an amazing Drag King and she and Nevada will put on amazing shows. Like Nevada she does prefer male clothing, though the still ID”s as female (She is BI). When the state’s were trying to get the both of them to “dress normal” they often just traded cloths.
Many think her dress is related to the Gangsters, but it is unrelated. She never liked the gangsters in her states, though she would slightly favor the Irish ones, being also an Avatar for Irish immigrants as well as the State of Illinois.
She is on better terms with the Northern states than she is her fellow Midwestern state’s. A lot of this owning to the Anti-Illinois campaigns CEO ran against her, as well as her tendency to prefer her Urban areas over her rural.
She is good friends with New Hampshire as long as they don’t talk too much politics. they have a happy middle ground, but disagree on a lot. She loves spending time with Pennsylvania just quietly doing things, and often visits Washington State. They have a similar sense of humor and enjoy video game competitions.
She WOULD get along with New York, but she still holds a grudge against New York for the New York gangsters that moved to Chicago and caused her so many headaches. The only other State she actively has issues with is West Virginia, because West Virginia LOVES telling her how her WV Hillbillies destroyed Elliot Ness. She doesn't Stan him the way Virginia Stans Jefferson, but she is just tired of hearing West Virginia gloat over her Moonshiners running circles around him and causing him to drink himself to death (her PoV anyway). Obviously she gets along with Penn, so she would not hold anything against West Virginia if the kid toned things down a bit.
Aside from State’s she is very close friends with Chippewa having grown close because of his help with her against the gangsters. She feels a HUGE debt to him for this as his William Gardner he was as important as her Elliot Ness and she is forever grateful for the help against Al Capone. Every Nov. 24th (the anniversary if Capone’s jail sentence) the she brings over a bottle of her finest apple juice and they toast to memories and then write letters to California shaming him for not having a Native American in his Untouchables movie (there was a Native American actor in the 50′s TV show so representation actually got worse!)
Some SoD doodles in response to recent events. First is Illinois and DC IL: "DC, you know how i made the executive order?" DC: "Yeahhhhh, so don't let any of the Southern Statrs in?" IL: "Or the Western ones" Then Virginia be annoyed at being told what to do with Texas cheering her on. And then Oregon having a moment. Oregon: Washington, I need to do something radical! OR: I haven't been radical since the 60's WA: Oregon, no. OR: These are my lands again!! Uncle: but... I pay you to use them. Follow this blog for more random state sketches, (usually done while trapped in an office) Follow @stateofdisunion for coherent comics mostly of better quality..... Mostly
Comic Notes
I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I meant to have this up Thursday, but the days were busier than I expected with all the family in town (good busy though). I only got one request for a State being Thankful,so went with this instead (don’t worry @black-rogue, I will use your suggestion for something else!). Here is a brief history of Turkey Pardoning, based on this article from NPR.
Turns out it’s not a very old tradition at all.
Abe Lincoln is the first we know to have not eaten a Turkey. I know I said it wasn’t old. It’s because this wasn’t Thanksgiving. It was a Christmas Turkey. He didn’t pardon it though. He just didn’t eat it because his son Tad liked the bird.
Jump forward 100 years and JFK was the next to not eat a bird, thought he just didn’t. The bird wasn’t pardoned.
The Both Nixon and Reagan let birds go. Since Cali would represent both (I know! POOR CALI!) and they were back to back -as far Turkey releasing goes- I just went with Reagan, who pardoned the bird as a way to deflect Irancontra questions. I guess it was sorta LOOK! A distraction! IDK. This is the exact quote from NPR. ”The bird, "Charlie," was already headed for a petting zoo, but after Sam Donaldson of ABC News pressed Reagan on whether he'd pardon North and Poindexter, Reagan responded, "If they'd given me a different answer on Charlie and his future, I would have pardoned him.“
Next is Daddy Bush, AKA Texas. George H was the first to formalize a pardoning ceremony, so I figured Texas was trying to one up Cali.
After that, everyone just went with the weird tradition of giving a turkey a Presidential Pardon on Thanksgiving.
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Announcement Also:
For most of December, SoD will be on hiatus because I’m moving! That is just too much far the comic, so easier to go on Hiatus.
However, I will continue my Christmas Advent Art tradition, and some of those will be SoD related.
((There are a lot of birthdays around this time of year among my roleplay buddies! The latest one up is the wonderful Alex, whose big day was June 4th.
Alex has personifications of a whole bunch of states, but the one who stands out the most to me is Byron, her personification of Illinois. He's a really good balance of the whole state - not just Chicago, but not completely without Chicago either. My characters haven't really interacted with him much, but I love seeing his role in the whole midwestern dynamic on here.
I hope I captured him ok, and I hope you like it, Alex! Happy belated birthday!))
