#reanima

[valoisfulcanellideux]

REanima cover and illustration reveal!

A while ago, I wrote REanima: a short story set in a far-future dystopian world. It features Saiziege (Mythical Sausage) as a bounty hunter, CuprePaxi (Pixlriffs) as an augmented future version of the immortal Copper King who now repairs androids, and Parlse (PearlescentMoon) the little Copper Golem. There's even a small cameo from Darvi (David the copper ageing facility)!

And, since Sabira | @floweroflaurelin had created such beautiful artwork for me before, when I commissioned them for the covers of These Stones Remember and A Tale of Two Devotions, who else would I commission for the artwork for REanima but their talented self!

Shown above are the amazing cover they created for the story, with Saiziege on his coded bike (and what a bike!) taking Parlse to the only person in the looming shadow of The Wall who can fix her. And oh my god, the stunning portrait of CuprePaxi cradling little Parlse in his arms in the moments before he reanimates her (and yes, those are channels of copper embedded in his skin). There's a reason why that's such a beautiful and tender fatherly image, and if you've read the story you'll know what that reason is ;)

I adored Sabira's take on little Parlse as a copper golem, giving her that lovely serene porcelain doll style faceplate, as well as their incredible ability to make anything metallic look so realistic and gorgeous.

It was, as ever, a joy working with Sabira, and I cannot recommend their commissions highly enough. They will take your thoughts and ideas and turn them into something truly special and wonderful <3

[thewinterstale]

We're officially open. I am so tired but I love this play so much. Audiences seem to be digging it, too! Final pics, I promise xD

[riddledela]

Bubbles! 💭(Charcoal on paper, drawn and erased to document trails of motion)

[plieguitothings]

My part in PowerPuff Girls ReAnimation

@powerpuffgirlsreanimate​   <3

[valoisfulcanellideux]

A little bit of behind the scenes lore for REanima

Art by Sabira / @floweroflaurelin

If you've read REanima, my short story set in a dystopian future about bounty hunter Saiziege (MythicalSausage), the augmented Copper King CuprePaxi (Pixlriffs), and copper golem Parlse (PearlescentMoon) then you may have wondered what happened to all the other copper golems that made the repair of little Parlse something that had to be kept so secret.

Since I've been going through my notes this morning, trying to find something else, I thought I'd type up a bit of lore that I jotted down but never included in the story, mostly because it only came to me weeks after I'd posted it on AO3.

These are literally only notes transcribed from the notebook that I always carry with me, and they're also not fact-checked/heavily researched, so they're mostly just to give some flavour to the backstory of the character of CuprePaxi.

Be warned: this is heart-wrenching.

Behind the cut with you!

In the past, CuprePaxi created innocent, childlike copper golems as companions for people (maybe even as 'eternal children' for those who couldn't have them, due to the excessive amount of pollution in the city causing high levels of infertility). Each one took a long time to make, as they were hand-crafted, and he regarded them all as his children. Because he knew that - at some distant point in their future - he would probably be called upon to repair them, and he didn't want to cause them any distress when he did that, he programmed each of them to regard him as their father, their protector.

Copper became incredibly scarce because so much of it was needed for the infrastructure (wiring, piping, etc.) of The Wall. (This touches on the impending copper shortage our current world is looking at.)

At some point in the recent past all the known copper golems were confiscated by the authorities... and - in one giant crucible - they were melted down.

CuprePaxi lives to this day with the knowledge that circulated soon after this event: that workers in the foundry were horrified to hear hundreds of small voices calling out for 'father!' as the crucible was heated.

Because of his underworld connections, Saiziege had advance knowledge of the impending copper golem confiscation, and so he hid little Parlse away. When the officials arrived to check his home, he managed to convince them that he couldn't afford a copper golem of his own, and so Parlse escaped the purge.

Even CuprePaxi himself sometimes gets eyed up as a potential source of the metal because of the liquid copper channels embedded in his skin. Whenever he's visited by an official who brings him an android for repair and he spots them looking at those channels, he immediately puts on a show of vanity, explaining that the copper is synthetic and he had the channels inserted because he thought they looked good. And all the while, he knows that - just as easily as they melted down his children - so would they gladly gouge out his copper channels without a second thought if it meant a bit more of the metal to build a bit more of The Wall.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

I've been playing around with Dystopika, which is a fantastic (and ridiculously cheap, for what it offers) chill, cyberpunk city-building sandbox game. No goals, no tasks, nothing to do but build up the Blade Runner city of your dreams, unlocking new decoration items every now and then as you progress, or resize buildings. You can even import your own images, and the Dystopika Discord server has an amazing modding channel where people are uploading art and gifs that you can download to use on your cities.

Aside from my Blade Runner-loving heart being SO into this (spot the nod to Dr Eldon Tyrrell on one of those buildings!) using some of the buildings of Alpha Corp (the big brutalist style ones) in the background made me think of The Wall in my story REanima. Sabira ( @floweroflaurelin ) all but predicted on the story's cover illustration exactly what this would look like!

In the story, The Wall is much higher than I can get those buildings to go, but this little game has allowed me to build part of that world and I'm having so much fun with it.

Dystopika is created by a solo developer, costs less than £6 (US$8) and is receiving constant little updates and tweaks, having only been released a couple of weeks ago.

Highly recommended :)

[thewinterstale]

Costumes tonight! Costumes tonight! ONE MORE SLEEP AND I'M THEREEEEEEEE!

[thewinterstale]

Eeeeee!!! My director is doing the company's Insta takeover during the cue-to-cue tonight so I got my first sneak peek of my play!!! I can say with confidence that I have NO IDEA what moment she captured here but I will find out in TWO MORE SLEEPS! (Sorry for repost - cropped out the Insta handles to be respectful <3)

And here's the pre-set! I love it when you can look at a set pic and tell THE DESIGNERS READ THE STAGE DIRECTIONS <3 <3 <3 (This company never does me dirty)