#oc valour

[thesquiddlesquad]

Dignity has to make everything she does into a competition. How do you know you’re succeeding if you’re not making someone else look bad?

Arcturus enjoys dancing more for its artistic merit, but he cares just as much about executing it flawlessly, so they make good partners.

Valour is absorbing his mother’s philosophy that life is about being better than other people. Victory just wants to keep her dad to herself a little longer.

[thesquiddlesquad]

The bad influence is coming from inside the house!

Bragging about each other to anyone who’ll listen is the main way Dignity and Valour express affection. Dignity was constantly seeking praise as a child (which she did not get), and Valour is following her lead. Arcturus is wondering yet again what the fuck he married into.

[thesquiddlesquad]

So I made this with two purposes: introducing the concept of magic withdrawal, and exploring some family dynamics.

Sun magic comes, as you might expect, from the sun, and it lets you manipulate light and heat. You can use as much as you want during the day, but at night you’re limited because you can’t ‘recharge’ until the sun comes back up. Arcturus, not being magical himself, wasn’t aware of this.

In case anyone can’t tell from the colours, the last two panels of page 4 and the first two panels of page 5 are Dignity’s flashback to her own childhood. The shadowy people are her mother, Sun Queen Majesty, and her nursemaid, Patience.

I can’t remember exactly how many suns I drew making this, but including all the partial ones it was well over a hundred :))))

[thesquiddlesquad]

Another comic with these guys. This time, it’s story time for the children, and Valour interrupts the story to destroy it with Facts and Logic. It was my sister who suggested to me that Arcturus probably chose that story to make Victory feel better about her own potential, which would explain why he’s so bothered that Valour is picking it apart.

This one takes place a few years earlier than the sun withdrawal comic. It also took much less time to draw.

[thesquiddlesquad]

This is a four piece ‘parents and children’ series. The main idea was to show how Arcturus and Nobility are happy to get down to their child’s level while playing with them, while Dignity and Majesty don’t do that, even with their favourite child. (Yes, there is rampant favouritism in this family. Everyone here is shown with the kid they're closest to, except Nobility, who only has one child.) Dignity and Valour are doing magic, if anyone wondered what the glowy orbs around the hands were.

I put in the alt-text which characters are in which picture, but here’s a link to the family tree for anyone who wonders how they’re related.

[thesquiddlesquad]

Even though I designed Valour to mostly resemble Arcturus (especially when he’s older), one thing he gets from Dignity is a tendency to smile or frown with just the corner of his mouth. His sister Victory, who otherwise looks more like her mother, doesn’t have this trait.

I did a positive and negative expression with (top to bottom): adult Dignity, Valour, and Dignity when she was Valour’s age.

[thesquiddlesquad]

As promised, the chess pictures. The game they’re playing is based on Chinese Xiangqi rather than western chess. I've never actually played - I just copied pictures of games I found on the internet.

First we have a young Nobility winning against her father, Antares, for the first time. It was a lot longer before she was able to beat her mother, Majesty.

Second, we have an older Nobility with Dignity, who’s too young to play properly and opts to stand on the board because (as usual) she wants attention.

Third, we have the two sisters again but a few years later, when Dignity is able to actually play. As the chess chart says, she’s not very good at the game, and she tends to lose her temper.

Finally, Nobility’s daughter Serenity (left) plays Dignity’s daughter Victory, while Victory’s brother Valour looms over her shoulder giving unwanted advice. He’s already a better player than his older sister and he knows it. She isn’t pleased.

[thesquiddlesquad]

Hah, remember when this meme was relevant? I just thought it fit pretty well with Dignity and Valour’s relationship. He likes watching his mom put people in their place. Arcturus and Victory’s picture isn’t based on a meme - they’re just out for a walk together or something.