the worst thing about first reads is that i cant remember where exactly to find my quotes <😔> i only have the memory of the vibe of a sentence but rest assured this is a very re-readable book series
i want to colour this but i might not get around to it for a while so have it at line art stage at least
i tried to intertwine some ocean motifs into their designs, like i put a starfish in V's hair just for fun -- and all the lights mustve been on in my brain because somehow i remembered that the chinese character for water is 水 (cantonese: seoi2 / mandarin: shuĭ ) which is,,,, kinda like a starfish shape?? soulmates babbyyyy!!!
pretty sure it was a plain mask but i thought it was fun so i put it on -- but also it's like maybe that helped people recognise him especially because he had like a specific hant rune lol
but uh also his mask now looks like those new york caps 😂
anyway hant and v are making me insane i think it's everything that was left unsaid im reading between the lines i am reading the subtext send help i am once again being swept up in the dont go where i cant follow and you will be lost and i will find you in this life and in the next and i dont know who you are but i know that i can trust you and id break the rules if it meant i could save you and i love you to the ends of the world but the Work comes first and you are dead but still breathing and i know all of you but you dont know me and---
dont think i drew them as gross as i was imagining but that wouldve been more in the colours and line art i guess
yoinked some lotr screenshots, also not quite what i have in my head but close enough i guess. i was imagining that you only see the mouth and jaw, everything else is shadowed by the hoods. imaginign sickly gums and jagged yellowed teeth and spots and black saliva/blood dripping from gaping jaws etc
🤔 i actually thought Rodda was going to go another way with the wordsmiths because the line that described them as all single men seemed poignant, especially with their venerated status and power -- with their education and their control of the fourth floor etc. i thought their isolation wouldve been explored more and how that would make them vicious and unrelenting and unempathetic but alas
anywayyy my early theory was that derry was the son of a wordsmith and thats why he could read unlike everyone else.
couldnt possibly fathom the How but im imagining that outside the. palace? he met a woman from the countryside and there was something about her that was intriguing and yadayayada they fall in love and i guess either:
he manages to have a secret family for ~ten years while continuing wordsmith duties -- until he's discovered with conflicting loyalties, with lies, hypocrisies, or he becomes a problem and they try to get rid of him or something. then it's a race to the family home and to escape to the shore
(which now that im writing it out, the threat of pursuit would parallel nissa and the Executioner, and all of the landovel books are about echoes of the past and repeated actions so. kinda reminiscent of that by accident lol)
he escapes immediately to be with his love and raise their son in the countryside (scene of the teapot??) away from the palace (maybe the pregnancy is a trigger to snap him out of it or maybe it happens later when he dares to live a humble domestic life instead) -- until they finally track him down to their lil cottage.
(ohhhhhh my god just remembered there's an episode in star wars clone wars where they come across a clone that defected from the army and was living a nice farmers life with his wife and kids. long story short maybe that was in my subconscious lmao) (also! jarred and anna)
i was imagining they get word ahead of time and theres just enough time to pack up and head to shore and catch a boat to Free. but i suppose maybe only one makes it to the boat, and maybe neither of them do, only derry.
either way in my little exploratory thumbnail sketches i ended up with the mum dies when cram's crew boards, she was probably defending her family or maybe she was just outspoken and they hated it. the dad is sold into slavery somewhere, and in book three derry wouldve come across him. and thats the moment when things fall into place in the rodda styled book if you know what i mean. it'd be like when doom got his memories back.
anyway i still dont understand what the hell is going on with the "time lines" but im choosing to believe that means all AUs are canon
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