Act Two of The Black Frost is now complete, up on FFN and AO3! Hat and Bow are starting to gather quite a team, but there’s still a few more players to go.
Since we don’t have a blue rift for this fic and because of the way the acts are split, we’ve got the interlude a little early. New chapter of The Black Frost now up on FFN and AO3!!
Shortest and last one of this bunch, “Hard Feelings” for Tales of the Fire Spirits is now up on FFN and AO3. For the next AHIT fic, the focus will turn to a certain flower girl.
Here are some designs I’ve come up with for some of the AHIT fics I’m working on. Notes below the cut:
Snatcher
Ok, so honestly, I still don’t know what I’m doing with him. If possible, I’d like to try to mimic his design in the original AHIT artwork–like in the loading screens–as much as possible. So I’m working less with lines for him and focusing on lighting to create his outlines, minus some touches to the fur–which is taking me a bit of practice. Overall, the idea is just to have him as the same guy we see in the game. One thing that I did add though was more of a wispy look to the tail, which I’ll be applying to the ghosts most of the time.
Moonjumper
I wanted to play around with Moon’s design the most, mostly because it felt a little awkward working with his head as just a mask from different angles. And then I changed the outfit a bit just so it would make a little more sense in my own head. What I ended up going for was this Venetian Masquerade meets Victorian Era type of look. His color scheme is a little darker, and instead of his usual coat, he’s got what’s called an inverness cloak over a vest. This cloak came into popularity in the 1850′s and you might recognize it from the typical Sherlock Holmes costumes. I felt this gave him more of an intellectual, professional air to suit the kind of overall controlled nature I’m going for with him. It also helps to separate him a bit from the Prince just as Snatcher’s taken his own appearance–indicating how they’ve changed from their initial self. As you may have seen from some of my earlier notes, the mask is still just a mask, so the expression doesn’t change: To keep it a part of himself though without completely revealing his human form, I added the draping fabric. I imagine that if it flows or is pulled back without the mask actually being removed, his facial features are distorted and impossible to really see.
The Florist
So, my version of the Florist has been through the ringer ever since Queen Vanessa went nuts. Taken by the swamp spirits, her appearance ended up being somewhat altered by their magic after years of living in their domain, causing her to look like something between a nure onago and nure onna. Her hair is also now more muted and messy, although she still likes keeping flowers as an accessory. Rather than go with a mermaid look, I followed more along the idea of an eel. This, I felt, fit the swamp atmosphere a bit better as well as can transition easier from her ‘spirit’ to ghost form–the latter being greatly similar to this, but with less specks and more of a ghostly glow.
Swamp Spirit
Speaking of the swamp spirits, boy, did I have a time trying to figure out what to do with them! Something more to a mermaid look ended up being pretty much unavoidable, but I was looking as at a bunch of different spirits–particularly from Japanese culture–to see what might work best. On top of the two I already mentioned above, I also looked at the ningyo and wani, which I felt fell more in line with what I ended up going for in the end. (If I explore the idea of other water spirits like this, especially in the ocean, those will probably be more like standard merfolk with a bit more of the wani thrown in.) So, for the end result, I kept the tail design similar to what we see in-game, with the apparent hands reaching up for Hat Kid out of the water to try to drag her down. Purple had to be a must, although for variations for the swamp spirits, I think it’ll lean heavily on yellows and greens overall. The purple, in my mind, works though to show the influence that miasma has had on the swamp on top of it also being a potential main color scheme for their species. For other notes, males will have these horns of all types protruding from their heads while females tend not to have them, or if they do they’re much smaller. The particular swamp spirit featured here is Thane Fen, the ruler of the swamp spirit’s domain.
‘Kit’
Last of all is Kit’s human design, prior to when she was taken by the fire spirits. Due to trauma and how many years she’s been separated from other people, she’s blocked out her memories of who she was, her name formerly being Catherine Hudson. I wanted her past-self to showcase that, while maybe not always as energetic as she is now, she was very much still an innocent and childish person. Her physical features are a little plain, but at the same time she almost looks like a porcelain doll brought to life. For her outfit, I have the skirt drawn up and these tall, Victorian boots to show her being more active during her travels and went with more of an 18th century look for the top parts of the dress.
