"...laying an entire city to rest isn't something that's easy to forget."
My piece for @thehumandictionary's fic for @aurorabigbang!
Here's the fic!
And here's the rest of the collection on AO3! :D The Aurora Big Bang blog will also be reblogging everything everyone made so make sure to go check that out as well! :D
Ramblings under the cut because I like talking and you can't stop me! Includes a bit of spoilers for the fic :>
Okay, first of all, the fic was sooo good you guys have nooooo idea how hard it was for me to pick a scene to draw ToT
I ended up deciding on this one though, not only because it gave me an excuse to draw most of the outfits that I've designed for everyone, but also because I wanted to try and capture the joyous atmosphere of the party and Kendal's complicated feelings on the matter simultaneously. I thought it would be an interesting contrast to explore :> and also it's important to the core of the fic :>
That being said, outfit design rambles!!
First off, Alinua! I'm so sad that I couldn't find a place to include her in the drawing, but she was somewhere else during this scene so you guys can have an additional doodle instead. I really like making her hair as fluffy as possible lol :>
Going in chronological designing order, next up is Erin! I ended up simplifying the ruffly cape thing in the end because I just could not figure out the logistics of how it worked, but honestly the rectangular cape makes for a much cleaner silhouette anyways. Thinking back on it now, the first version would have been a bit hard to read, with all the flowy fabric going everywhere.
Next is Dainix and Falst together, I don't have as much to say about these two except I gave them matching bracelets lol. For all the beads and turquoise stuff in the final design, I was inspired by that one drawing of Dainix at a festival wearing a lot of glass beads and thought it might be fun to include that :>
Next is Vash!! I really liked the concept for this one, I was inspired by the line "I've had plenty of time to grieve. It's nice to remember" and was like hey what if Vash's outfit was a sort of memorial/tribute to the memory and history of his people soooooo you might wanna go take a closer look at the embroidery on his jacket in the final piece 👀 ignore the fact that I forgot his epaulette
Tess! Tess! Tess! I've been trying to give someone a suit-dress fusion this entire time and she finally gave me an excuse to do so!! Thanks Tess :>
also
Finally, KENDAL!! His outfit gave me soo much trouble I had to redraw him sooo many times but I loved the way it turned out! He's the main character in this fic so I wanted to make sure his design is perfect but the problem was that I didn't really know how to design tighter clothing and his shirt was described as hard to swordfight in soooo-
But it was a really interesting design exercise! I ended up settling on giving him a vest in the same style as Vash's jacket, with an undershirt made of a slightly shimmery/iridescent fabric, which also let me practice drawing stiffer fabrics (I really really like drawing flowy fabrics so this was an interesting change of pace for me). The goal was to create distinct designs for Kendal and Vash that highlights their individuality while still showing their connection to one another and I think it worked out pretty nicely. If I didn't forget the epaulette on Vash they would have made a complete set with one on the opposite shoulder each but I did forget the epaulette so uh welp. you didn't see that nope-
Bonuses time!
Location brainstorm sketches!
Paneling concepts!
Bonus doodles!
Caliban in fancy party clothes!!! Because they're my favorite dang it and I want to draw herrrrrrrrrr he can be fancy. as a treat. because I said so
Anyways yeah that's my piece for Aurora Big Bang 2025!! Thank you to TheHumanDictionary for writing this awesome fic, to Mod Floofs and Mod Goggles for organizing this awesome event, and to everyone who participated!! It was my first time participating in any sort of fandom event and everyone was so nice and talented and I had a great time! :D You guys are awesome and I really hope I get to participate again next year! :>
at some point I think designing a watcher grian is just a contest to see how many wings and eyes we can put on him before it becomes too much. anyways i think he needs more eyes
The basic premise is that it's a modern au (because I said so) where Erin got possessed by the Void Dragon, but instead of taking the VD seriously everybody around them just thought that Erin was going through an emo phase and the floof squad decided to run with it because it was the easiest explanation to keep the literal star-eating dragon possession a secret while they try to get rid of it
Falst and Tess find this very funny. Erin is very disgruntled about the whole situation (especially because it's actually working)
Some additional thoughts about the AU under the cut:
Tess was the first person to realize that Erin was being possessed:
Tess looks exactly the same as canon except that she has crocs. Before she gets into a fight, she calls for a timeout, bends down, and puts her crocs into sports mode
Falst has gone through an emo phase before and gave Erin all of his old stuff to help keep up the excuse for the VD:
Falst was also the introvert that Kendal adopted when he (Falst) was still in his emo phase
Kendal happened when Vash somehow accidentally committed mitosis one day. This is never commented nor elaborated upon again.
Kendal is immune to starfire (and keeps setting himself on fire with said starfire as a distraction)
And so is Vash, who has done the exact same thing many times in his youth as a party trick
The people of Vash are a huge colony of ants that live in a giant hole that Vash dug in his backyard because I don't know how else to explain Vash having like 50,000 people living in his house
Vash and Kendal can tell each and every single ant apart on sight and knows them all by name
The Collector is the head of the local homeowners association
Zuurith has a perfectly tidy and squeaky clean lawn that he trims every day at the most annoying time of the night
Alinua and Kendal are childhood friends.
Alinua has seen Tess eat dirt once. She was fascinated.
Erin used to be taller than Tess when they were little, but the moment they hit puberty, Tess started growing like a bamboo stalk (they grow extremely fast from what I've been told) and has been towering over him ever since. Tess tells him that he might get taller if he exercised. He refused, citing his need to finish writing his college-level academic paper before the end of the school year (they were in 7th grade)
Tess is a morning person and gets up at ungodly hours for her daily run. This is how she meets Dainix, who is also a morning person. They quickly become friends and often work out together.
Dainix is definitely on some kind of varsity sports team with Kendal. Idk what sport (one of my friends suggested rugby, but I'm open to other suggestions as well) but they're friends and that's how Dainix met Falst
Tahraim and Caliban are Dainix's weird uncle/whatever gender Caliban felt like being at the time. They never show up at family gatherings but somehow they still know all the gossip
Magic still exists in literally the exact same way as canon, but for some reason the narrative does not take ANY of the world-ending primordial threats seriously
Angst and trauma does not exist here, this au is purely of the fluff and crack variety
That may mean that some characters may be a bit ooc, but I'll try my best to stick to the cores of their characters as much as I can :>
Jury's still out on how Erin got possessed by the VD in the first place; my current idea is that he was exploring an ancient city in Minecraft and ended up getting possessed by the sculk (VD in disguise) in real life
name suggestions for the au are welcome; bad puns highly encouraged :>
I SAID I WAS GOING TO DRAW THAT CAR SO HERE WE ARE (I hope you enjoy this is the stupidest thing I've drawn in months /affectionate)
(I put the image descriptions in the Alt text this time because there's so many images. If it doesn't work please tell me and I'll yeet them in the actual post!!)
