Art! Fiction! Something for everyone!
Hey look, it's my first completed, colored digital work! I got this idea around two years ago and just now got around to drawing it. I would have a hard time believing that I was the only one who looked at the Demon Days album cover and thought of this. If you have no idea what Demon Days was or who Gorillaz are, look here.
(Click for bigger version)
If anyone can tell me the secret of painting smooth lines in GIMP, please share. I'm beginning to suspect that I might just have to pay for Sai, though. Reno's character is really the only one that fits here, sadly. Tseng still looks in character, but that's just thanks to Murdoc's demeanor in the original picture being something Tseng might project as well. Yeah, Rude's eyes are like that on purpose - I'm pretty sure he's a robot. And Elena... I don't like her much and she's definitely not cool enough to sit in Noodle's spot, so she's drawn the most out of character to make her more street. Otherwise I don't think she could have gone in this picture.
Let me make it really clear that NO CRITICISM IS DESIRED. I can see the mistakes too, and they're there because I'm figgin inexperienced and tackled a project that was, honestly, probably too big for me at this point. However, if you see something that it looks like I struggled with and you can tell me, concisely, a better way to do it please do.
And, um... If you like anything about it please speak up :) Encouragement is nice.
Now, for something completely uncharacteristic, I give you... NOT CRACK!
Title: It's Like Research, Only Not
Fandom: FFVII
Warnings: Dark subject matter
Characters: Hojo, Lucrecia, and a surprise! I'm sure you'll figure out who he is.
There was blood on the lab floor, which was unusual. It got on the tables, on instruments, onto lab coats; but rarely found its way down to pool on the ground -- that was only when an accident had happened.
"He survived the treatments," Lucrecia breathed almost reverently, eyes closed, palms and forehead pressed to the tempered glass separating her from her bloody, snarling test subject.
"No," Hojo shook his head, stepping over the grossly contorted bodies of the Turks on the floor. They were covered in bite and claw marks, whole chunks of flesh had been taken out in places, but they'd gotten the escaped experiment back into its cage. The one that had completed the task lay slumped by the cell door, having smeared his blood down it as he collapsed. They died getting the job done, and no survivors meant no mission reports to say they'd found their missing comrade. God, he liked Turks. "He is animated, not living." The smell of rotting flesh rolled thickly off the man behind the glass.
"Did you let him out?" Hojo asked as he came to stand next to Lucrecia.
She turned towards him with empty eyes and a sick, acidic smile, then glanced at the dead bodies littering the space. "He was hungry," she explained almost sheepishly, like a doting mother admitting that she let her child have too many sweets.
Clinically amused, he raised his eyebrows then turned to regard his wife's project. The experiment shivered violently, crumpling to the floor of his cell as blood began to leak from his nose and mouth. He pitched fowards and started to convulse. Doubtless, the treatments were hell on his body. The doctor wrinkled his nose - he really did find the screaming distasteful.
“And tell me,” Hojo said, setting his hand on the swell of Lucrecia's stomach but not taking his eyes off the man in the cell, “how is his baby today?”
Something dark passed over her features, but she shook her head as though the act would rid her of whatever it was and pretended not to hear him.
Hojo gathered her in his arms. "I love you," he said, and he meant it. And when all this is over, I might have to feed you to one of your monsters. And he meant that, too.
Discussion Funtiems because that is at least half the point of fandom for me
You've gotta be pretty familiar with pre-BC FFVII to fully understand this story, I guess :( I had someone proofread this for me and they mistook the unnamed character in the cell for Sephiroth. I had hoped that it would be obvious that it was Vincent - Lucrecia's still working for Shin Ra, which means Sephiroth isn't born yet (I guess there's no official answer as to when she died, but I like to think it was pretty close to after she gave birth). Also, Hojo asks her about a baby I had hoped it would be obvious she was currently carrying, and refers to it as 'his,' meaning 'the unnamed character's' (if her baby isn't Hojo's, then it must be... Vincent's! Right? Unless it actually belonged to someone else entirely. Oh, plotbunny). Did all that add up for you as you read? If not please let me know so that I can cry about my inability to convey major plot points so that I can try to work that kink out of my writing.
And yeah, I do think of Sephiroth as Vincent's child. For one, Hojo was willing to do some pretty nasty things to him. Now, one could argue that he saw this as turning him into a god, and I sorta think that's a valid argument. But I think Hojo is more selfish than that - he wouldn't bestow something he considered a gift on someone else, even if he could use it for his own means.
A lot of people would also argue that, well, people are capable of doing awful things to eachother; even doing awful things to infants. But, I think it's a lot more believable to argue that Hojo did this to a child produced by an affair his wife had rather than his own child. More motive, you know? And this would also help to justify why Vincent got so hellbent on redemption. Of course in game canon his actions less said 'I'm saving the world to atone for some stuff' and more screamed 'REEVE TRICKED ME INTO THIS! WHY AM I STILL HERE?' But don't take that into account, it makes my argument look shoddy!
As to Lucrecia's role here... Well, from what I saw of her in DoC, it looked like she was pretty batshit all her life. That could have just been the game designers trying to make a naive, bubbly female character... But, um. Did that fall flat for anyone else? Did she seem more unhinged than bubbly for any of you (before the part where Vincent got killed)?
...Now plotbunnies for Lucrecia's backstory are attacking me. Yay life.
(Click for bigger version)
If anyone can tell me the secret of painting smooth lines in GIMP, please share. I'm beginning to suspect that I might just have to pay for Sai, though. Reno's character is really the only one that fits here, sadly. Tseng still looks in character, but that's just thanks to Murdoc's demeanor in the original picture being something Tseng might project as well. Yeah, Rude's eyes are like that on purpose - I'm pretty sure he's a robot. And Elena... I don't like her much and she's definitely not cool enough to sit in Noodle's spot, so she's drawn the most out of character to make her more street. Otherwise I don't think she could have gone in this picture.
Let me make it really clear that NO CRITICISM IS DESIRED. I can see the mistakes too, and they're there because I'm figgin inexperienced and tackled a project that was, honestly, probably too big for me at this point. However, if you see something that it looks like I struggled with and you can tell me, concisely, a better way to do it please do.
And, um... If you like anything about it please speak up :) Encouragement is nice.
Now, for something completely uncharacteristic, I give you... NOT CRACK!
Title: It's Like Research, Only Not
Fandom: FFVII
Warnings: Dark subject matter
Characters: Hojo, Lucrecia, and a surprise! I'm sure you'll figure out who he is.
There was blood on the lab floor, which was unusual. It got on the tables, on instruments, onto lab coats; but rarely found its way down to pool on the ground -- that was only when an accident had happened.
"He survived the treatments," Lucrecia breathed almost reverently, eyes closed, palms and forehead pressed to the tempered glass separating her from her bloody, snarling test subject.
"No," Hojo shook his head, stepping over the grossly contorted bodies of the Turks on the floor. They were covered in bite and claw marks, whole chunks of flesh had been taken out in places, but they'd gotten the escaped experiment back into its cage. The one that had completed the task lay slumped by the cell door, having smeared his blood down it as he collapsed. They died getting the job done, and no survivors meant no mission reports to say they'd found their missing comrade. God, he liked Turks. "He is animated, not living." The smell of rotting flesh rolled thickly off the man behind the glass.
"Did you let him out?" Hojo asked as he came to stand next to Lucrecia.
She turned towards him with empty eyes and a sick, acidic smile, then glanced at the dead bodies littering the space. "He was hungry," she explained almost sheepishly, like a doting mother admitting that she let her child have too many sweets.
Clinically amused, he raised his eyebrows then turned to regard his wife's project. The experiment shivered violently, crumpling to the floor of his cell as blood began to leak from his nose and mouth. He pitched fowards and started to convulse. Doubtless, the treatments were hell on his body. The doctor wrinkled his nose - he really did find the screaming distasteful.
“And tell me,” Hojo said, setting his hand on the swell of Lucrecia's stomach but not taking his eyes off the man in the cell, “how is his baby today?”
Something dark passed over her features, but she shook her head as though the act would rid her of whatever it was and pretended not to hear him.
Hojo gathered her in his arms. "I love you," he said, and he meant it. And when all this is over, I might have to feed you to one of your monsters. And he meant that, too.
Discussion Funtiems because that is at least half the point of fandom for me
You've gotta be pretty familiar with pre-BC FFVII to fully understand this story, I guess :( I had someone proofread this for me and they mistook the unnamed character in the cell for Sephiroth. I had hoped that it would be obvious that it was Vincent - Lucrecia's still working for Shin Ra, which means Sephiroth isn't born yet (I guess there's no official answer as to when she died, but I like to think it was pretty close to after she gave birth). Also, Hojo asks her about a baby I had hoped it would be obvious she was currently carrying, and refers to it as 'his,' meaning 'the unnamed character's' (if her baby isn't Hojo's, then it must be... Vincent's! Right? Unless it actually belonged to someone else entirely. Oh, plotbunny). Did all that add up for you as you read? If not please let me know so that I can cry about my inability to convey major plot points so that I can try to work that kink out of my writing.
And yeah, I do think of Sephiroth as Vincent's child. For one, Hojo was willing to do some pretty nasty things to him. Now, one could argue that he saw this as turning him into a god, and I sorta think that's a valid argument. But I think Hojo is more selfish than that - he wouldn't bestow something he considered a gift on someone else, even if he could use it for his own means.
A lot of people would also argue that, well, people are capable of doing awful things to eachother; even doing awful things to infants. But, I think it's a lot more believable to argue that Hojo did this to a child produced by an affair his wife had rather than his own child. More motive, you know? And this would also help to justify why Vincent got so hellbent on redemption. Of course in game canon his actions less said 'I'm saving the world to atone for some stuff' and more screamed 'REEVE TRICKED ME INTO THIS! WHY AM I STILL HERE?' But don't take that into account, it makes my argument look shoddy!
As to Lucrecia's role here... Well, from what I saw of her in DoC, it looked like she was pretty batshit all her life. That could have just been the game designers trying to make a naive, bubbly female character... But, um. Did that fall flat for anyone else? Did she seem more unhinged than bubbly for any of you (before the part where Vincent got killed)?
...Now plotbunnies for Lucrecia's backstory are attacking me. Yay life.